


Sweet Music

by CrazyKitCat



Category: Ouran High School Host Club - All Media Types
Genre: Bad Flirting, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Domestic Fluff, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, First Love, Flirting, Fluff, High School, Humor, Major Original Character(s), Ridiculous, Sarcasm, Teasing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-28
Updated: 2019-07-01
Packaged: 2019-07-18 17:19:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 26,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16123178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrazyKitCat/pseuds/CrazyKitCat
Summary: Two girls, a self-published author and a chef-in-training transfer to Ouran Academy. See what happens when they meet our our strong, silent host and our Shadow King, as they shake the grounds of everything Ouran has ever known. Follows the original plot to the anime/manga with two new characters to shake things up.





	1. We meet Mel and Bea

**Author's Note:**

> AUTHOR'S NOTE: Please excuse my writing. It WILL get better as the story goes on, but this is the first time I've actually tried to consistently post a multi-chapter. This story was inspired by a conversation with my wonderful friend Lullaby-of-the-lost, who I met in college. She helped me come up with it and we wrote the first 10 chapters together! Everything after that is just me! Please enjoy our introductory chapter!  
> This will be updated every other weekend!

Our story starts after the fall semester in Paris, France. Christmas is a few weeks away. A seventeen-year-old author sits in a small café, enjoying a hot cafe au lait on cold, rainy winter day. Her computer is set up in front of her with a split-screen. Half of her screen shows the records of the current stock market prices and the other half has a document with a roughly written draft for a new chapter to a fantasy fiction novel.

A second girl walks down the street and up to the café before stopping at the young writer's table.

"Hey Melody!" she greets her friend cheerfully as she drops her bag in a third chair before plopping down in the chair opposite the author.

"What do you want Beatrice?" Melody asked, recognizing the underlying tone in the voice of her best friend of 9 years without even glancing up from the numbers and documents on her computer.

"Do you remember how I applied to change food themes from French pastries through the academy?" Beatrice asked, not bothering to beat around the bush as she cuts to the chase instead.

Melody hummed in response, glancing up to look up at Beatrice, wondering where she was going with this.

The two girls had met in the American foster care system when Melody was 9 and Beatrice was 7. Nine years later, and their bond has grown to be incomparable. Their situation is very unique, however. Despite currently going to school in France, both girls are technically underage citizens of the United States of America, who study abroad as emancipated minors.

From a young age, both girls had bonded over a shared drive to forge a path for themselves while also studying for careers in the arts. They left the United States and started their adventurous travels two and a half years ago. So far, they've studied a full year in England and Spain, and have spent the past half-year in France. Typically, they spend a full academic year in a new country before checking in with a court-appointed social worker in America during the summer holidays.

The main reason why they have traveled to so many countries, was so that Beatrice could study the art of cooking different cuisines while taking courses online for regular schoolwork. Although Beatrice is only fifteen, she has always been a wonderful cook. Melody loved to travel and took Beatrice's traveling training as an excuse to absorb inspiration from all of the countries they visited for her fantasy series.

The only reason why Melody still had high school credits outstanding was because she had become quite a well-known author. After publishing her first book at the age of fifteen, she has released at least 2 books a year. Her series follows the adventures of a young boy who discovers he has magical powers and has to travel the world to uncover more secrets of his mysterious past while conquering the dark forces of evil. It's a fairly stereotypical plot-line, but Melody liked to focus on the history and culture of the places she and Beatrice traveled to gather inspiration for her books. Her hope was to gear her writing to teach younger kids lessons about life, but the authenticity and raw humor of the content drew fans to her writing in the forms of young and old alike. My series has actually proven to be fairly popular, however, most of the money the girls live off of comes from the stocks Melody loves to dabble and invest in.

"Well, the instructor told me that there was a really good apprenticeship that he signed me up for instead," Beatrice explained.

"That's awesome," Melody responded, still mostly distracted. However, she'd known Beatrice for years. From the tone of her voice and the fact she had left her statement open-ended, Melody knew there was something her friend was holding back. "What will you be studying?"

"The apprenticeship is for traditional Japanese cooking," she trailed off again.

"Okay. Come out with it," Melody gave up trying to work any more and closed her laptop.

"The apprenticeship is in Japan," Beatrice mumbled into her vanilla latte. To say Melody was surprised would be an understatement as her eyebrows shot up to her hairline. Beatrice rushed to continue. "But it's such a great opportunity and I heard about Ouran Academy, but I never thought I'd get in. They just hired a new master chef to be head chef at the school and I'd be shadowing him directly as his assistant. You know the school will accept you with your grades. Considering you just need your four final core credits, attending shouldn't be too hard. Please can we go?!"

Melody sighed, recognizing the excited sparkle in her friend's eyes. She'd never been able to say no to her friend when she looked at her like that. Melody re-opened her computer and pulled up the website for Ouran High School.

"From what I see, Ouran High School is astronomically expensive. Not to mention, we would have to skip ahead the rest of this academic year since the Japanese school year starts in the spring... How do you expect to pay for it?"

"Since we already took all of our mandatory classes online for this spring, I don't see the issue with either of us testing ahead. That way, I'll start my sophomore year schooling as a high school first year and you would skip forward to be a third year senior. Plus, the school is offering me a scholarship to attend the local cooking program as a work-study as well as working in the cafeteria at the school."

"If that's the case, why don't I just take the credits online and work on my new book from home?" I ask, typing away on my laptop.

"Because it'll be your senior year Mel, and you need to experience real school-life, just like I want to. You can put your character in a Japanese school as his new adventure! We've been traveling around so much and I could do with a dose of something "normal". Plus, I know how you've wanted to live in Japan since you were six. Plus... A little birdie told me Ouran has some pretty awesome business and creative writing classes!" Beatrice explained animatedly.

"As awesome as that all is Bea... Where do you expect us to live? It's not like Ouran has dorms for foreign students like our past boarding schools have. And have you contacted Karly about this?" Melody asked as an afterthought. Karly was their lawyer-turned-social-worker who had helped vouch for their emancipated status in court.

"Karly approved!" Beatrice beamed at Melody. "She thinks it's a wonderful learning opportunity considering that we're both already fluent in Japanese."

"Of course she does," Melody rolled her eyes. "And the living situation?"

"I actually did the research for that already! I looked it up on some websites and found some really cute images of reasonably priced two or three-bedroom, one bath apartments. The best part is, they're just a two train stops from the school," she explained as she beckons for the laptop so she could pull up the website for the two girls to look over together.

With all things considered, it _was_ a pretty nice place and Melody could easily see the two girls making it into a home. "Have you considered how we'll pay for this apartment?" she asked, as she pulled the laptop back to herself to begin typing again. After a definitive pause, she looked up to see her friend's guilty smile. Melody easily translated the look. Beatrice was hoping she'd made a sound enough argument that Melody would pay for it with the money she earned from buying and selling different stocks.

"Please," Beatrice begged, her hands clasped together in a pleading motion as she unleashed her killer puppy-dog eyes. "Think of what a wonderful investment it will be if you change the third bedroom into a writing office!"

"Really?!" Melody asked exasperated as Beatrice ups the antics with her lower lip jutting out to add a pout. "Fine," Melody surrendered dramatically. "We'll have to get our place settled and our tests taken before the new semester starts after the new year, so we leave in a month."

Melody rolled my eyes as Bea tackled her in a bear hug. No one could ever claim that their lives were boring.


	2. Mel and Bea meet Ranka and Haruhi

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AUTHOR'S NOTE: For those of you who read the previous chapter, make sure you review!

A few weeks later, Beatrice and Melody found themselves juggling 5 suitcases, two backpacks and one laptop case at the baggage claim of Tokyo Airport.

"Remind me again why we had to bring your piano? It's big and heavy!" Beatrice complained as she tried to grab one of the two remaining heavy suitcases dedicated to her best friend's clothes off of the carousel.

"Because when they shipped it to us in Spain, they broke half my stuff!" Mel reminded her cheerfully, as she easily lugged the bag off the claim.

"Well what are we going to do with it now? We can't exactly fit it in the cab, and I don't think the bus will take us with all of our stuff!"

The reality of Bea's words hits Melody dumbstruck for a moment and she instantly zoned out as she tried to come up with a solution. She was so zoned out that she didn't even notice when one of their bags came out, immediately followed by another three large bags blocking it in.

Knowing Melody is completely lost in her own head, Bea sighed exasperatedly as she went to grab the bag. She was quickly stumped by the weight of the other bags on top of it.

"Can I help you with that sweetie?" A male voice says from over her shoulder.

"Yes, that would be amazing Mr. Uh–" Bea's words caught in her throat when she turned around and beheld her savior.

The voice of the person she originally thought to be male, turned out to be a woman... She thought. Her savior had a head full of long red hair and a beautiful face accentuated with makeup. They were wearing a stylish hat and a royal purple maxi-dress was wrapped around their frame. That wasn't all that surprising since it was 79 degrees outside.

"Oh please dear, call me Ranka!" he said as he easily grabbed their last suitcase from the baggage claim. "Where are you and your sister headed with all of these bags?" Ranka inquired before realizing they weren't accompanied by an adult. "Are you meeting your parents here?"

"Actually," Bea said apologetically, "according to the American legal system, my friend and I are joint emancipated minors who rely on each other. We don't have parents."

"Oh, my dears! I'm so sorry! Please forgive me! Your Japanese was so good, I didn't even realize," Ranka exclaimed in embarrassment. "If you're from America, whatever brings you two to Japan with all of these bags?"

"Oh! Melody and I were just accepted into Ouran Academy! We start with the new term on Monday, but we were planning on moving into our apartment today. The reason why my friend has had such _poor manners_ right now is because she's trying to figure out how to get these bags there. I'm afraid we don't know what to do since we can't fit it all into a cab and we only have enough yen on hand for one taxi since we haven't stopped by the currency exchange yet."

"Oh my goodness! Well that won't do! Where is your apartment located?" Ranka exclaimed.

"Oh! We'll be moving into the Guadalupe Apartments Complex."

"What a coincidence!" Ranka exclaimed. "That's where I live! You girls must be the two who are moving into the 3 bedroom next door to me and my daughter, Haruhi. You look to be the same age as her. Am I right in guessing you're a first year high school student? Please allow me to welcome you girls to Japan by giving you a lift! I have a van rented for the day, as I was accompanying my friend to the airport!"

"That _would be_ quite lovely! _Wouldn't_ it Melody?!" Bea said as she elbowed her friend in the side.

"Huh, wha–?" Melody said, looking around startled, but still not quite present in the conversation. "Oh yes, nice to meet you!" She bowed to Ranka using perfect etiquette with fluent Japanese. "Sorry, I'm just trying to figure out a small problem of ours," she said before zoning out again.

Bea sighed before turning back to Ranka. "Thank you so much! That would be a huge help!"

"Wonderful!" Ranka exclaimed as he grabbed the keyboard and one of the largest bags, full of Melody's stuff. "Let's go!"

That's all it took to bring Melody back to planet earth.

"A cross-dresser just stole my stuff," she said dumbfounded.

"Yes, Melody," Bea said as she threw her book bag over her shoulder before grabbing her two rolling suitcases.

"You found a random cross-dresser on the street and let him touch my stuff!?"

"Yes! He's going to help us get _your_ _stuff_ to our apartment complex! His name is Ranka and he happens to live in the apartment next to ours!"

"Wait Bea! Did you see any proof of this? How do you not know he's some crazy kidnapper who wears women's clothes?!"

"Do you have any better ideas?" Bea snapped back.

"Well, not presently," Melody conceded, "But he took my stuff!" she whined in a childlike tone.

"Oh, come on!" Bea groaned as she followed Ranka out of the airport. Melody quickly threw her book bag and laptop case over her shoulder before chasing after her beloved piano, giving up on coming up with a better idea.

* * *

The entire way to the apartment complex, Ranka babbled on and on about his beloved daughter, Haruhi.

"Okay, he _may_ not be a kidnapping rapist," Melody muttered into Bea's ear after 15 minutes in the car. "But he sure has one hell of a daddy complex."

"I think that it's sweet that he cares about his daughter so much," Bea smiled brilliantly at Ranka.

"Suck up," Melody muttered to another jab in the ribs.

"Thank you again for driving us Ranka! We truly appreciate it!" Bea beamed.

"Oh! After we get your keys and bring your stuff to your apartment, you both should join my daughter and I for dinner!" Ranka said animatedly.

"We wouldn't want to impose!" Melody quickly cut in.

"Oh please! We'd love to have you!" He said as the van pulled out in front of the complex. "Here, I'll take these bags upstairs, and you girls go over to apartment 101 over there to grab your keys!" Ranka said cheerfully as he grabbed Melody's large bags again. "That's where our lovely building manager lives."

"My stuff," Melody said in a sad puppy tone as she started to mindlessly follow after her beloved belongings.

"Seriously Mel? Come on," Bea sighed in exhaustion as she dragged her best friend to the building manager's apartment with the rest of their bags.

5 minutes later, the girls had been poked and prodded by their new landlord and building manager, but they had their keys. They were walking up the stairs, joking about their exuberance, to be welcomed halfway up to the sound of Ranka's terrified cry of "HARUHI!" The girls were running before he was done screaming her name. When they burst into their new friend's apartment seconds later, they saw Ranka draped over a _girl?_ The Haruhi they had heard so much about apparently didn't know much about fashion, since her hair was cut straight into a bowl-cut.

"Hey dad," the girl greeted her wailing father. "Did you get Misuzu to the airport safely?"

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO YOUR HAIR?!" Ranka wailed, as the two other girls relaxed at the lack of danger.

"The boy down the street put gum in my hair, so I cut it off. It'll be easier to take care of this way," she said in a practically monotone voice.

"But it was so pretty!" Ranka wailed in grief.

"I don't really care what it looks like, I just didn't want to deal with the gum in my hair," Haruhi told her father honestly.

"Well, I might be able to help," Melody tentatively stepped in.

"And... Who are you?" Haruhi asked the two strange girls in confusion. The taller girl who had just spoken stood at five feet and eight inches. She had long wavy hair that fell just below her shoulders. Her layered and balayaged color faded seamlessly from a natural brunette at the roots to a vibrant honey blonde that framed her face and continued to a slight rose gold tint at the tips for a very stylish look. She was wearing a black t-shirt with an animated nine tailed fox that had the caption "I give zero fox". She had paired it with a stylish black leather jacket and ripped skinny blue jeans. She finished off her look with a couple rings, an assortment of necklaces, and black high-top Vans. Her makeup looked plain and natural, but with a slight artistic flair from her cat's eye black eyeliner and pink lipstick.

Haruhi wasn't sure if she'd call the shorter girl's hair purple or brown. It had a lovely burgundy color and was twisted up into a high tight bun, with strands left free to frame her face. Her long sleeved, knee-length blue dress had a modest old-age European feel with laces tying up the front bust. Her makeup had a very natural feel to it that accentuated her natural features. Haruhi was shocked to realize that this girl was barely taller than her, at five feet and two inches.

Their facial features and their mannerisms gave them away as American, although both girls were speaking perfect Japanese and had remembered to take off their shoes.

"I'm Melody," the girl in the fox shirt said in perfect Japanese.

"And I'm Beatrice, but you can call me Bea," the shorter one replied. "We met your father at the airport, and it seems like we're going to be next door neighbors. I hope we can be friends?"

"And _I_ hope you will let me fix your hair," Melody said in a no-nonsense tone.

"Sure, if you can make my dad stop weeping on the floor, go ahead," Haruhi said, gesturing to her father who was still crying prostrate on the floor.

"I don't blame him," Melody replied with a smirk. "It's so uneven, it almost makes _me_ want to cry. I'm just going to give it a little TLC and layers to frame your face better."

"Do you mind if I whip up something for all of us to eat for dinner while you two do that?" Bea asked.

"Sure, Let's get your stuff into your apartment, and then you two can make yourselves feel at home," Haruhi said to her two new friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To anyone who read this before: yes, I changed Melody's hair. I figured giving it more color would bring out her character's spunk more. Also, since I needed her to still become a part of the host club, but not be a music producer and still keep this scene, I gave her a piano.
> 
> Also, the fox shirt I mentioned exists and you and buy it on TeeTurtle's online store. It's super cute!


	3. Mel and Bea meet the Hosts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AUTHOR'S NOTE: Please review for this story! I hope you enjoy.

A week later, the three new friends found themselves at the gates of the school they had dreamed about. Haruhi, unable to afford the uniform, was dressed up in some of her father's old clothes, her large spectacles hiding her eyes. Melody and Beatrice had received their uniforms in the mail two days prior to the start of term. Bea had loved the girlish look of the girls' yellow uniform, but Melody had taken one look before repacking the dress and sending it back to the headmaster with a note saying that there was _no_ way she'd be caught dead in that "yellow atrocity." Instead, Melody was dressed smartly in black slacks and a white button down shirt with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows and a black vest that accentuated her slim, but well-endowed figure. Her hair was tied in a messy bun so that her brown hair faded into the blonde knot twisted at the back of her head, while Beatrice's hair was tied up into a neat french twist. Melody looked up at the gates of Ouran Academy through her prescription Ray Bans before turning to her friends.

"This is going to be a really snobbish school, isn't it?" she asked her two friends.

"Please stop," Bea sighed. Haruhi had already wandered off, too preoccupied with her books to notice her friends weren't following, while Bea—not a huge fan of attention—tried to blend in with her yellow uniform.

"Well, let's get this over with," Melody said as she adjusted her laptop case over her shoulder, before looking up to see two bright blue eyes right in front of her. "What the—?!"

"Hello, you must be Ouran's two newest princesses!" The six foot eccentric blonde haired boy greeted them in broken English. "My name is Suoh Tamaki and this is my best companion, Ootori Kyoya."

"Pleased to meet your acquaintance," The five foot and ten inch, black haired boy with glasses Tamaki had referred to as 'Kyoya' greeted them as well in English with a slight bow.

"Yo," Melody greeted them in English with a smirk, before switching to Japanese. "Your English is terrible, Blondie," she told Tamaki.

"I'm SO glad you noticed my beauty!" Tamaki said with a wide gesture of his arms and stars in his eyes to the two slack-jawed girls. "Please excuse me princesses, but English is my third language after French and Japanese."

"So what?" Melody said, "Japanese is my sixth language and I still can speak it well."

Kyoya's eyebrows rose in interest at this. _This could be interesting,_ he thought to himself before stepping forward and offering his hand, a gesture which was blatantly ignored by the brunette while her dark purple haired friend quickly took it. "May we escort you ladies to the head's office?" he asked with his best host's smile.

"That would be extremely helpful," Beatrice said after she had introduced Melody and herself.

Melody looked Kyoya over with a thoughtful expression as if she were trying to read his very soul. "Extremely helpful," Melody agreed in a complete change of character with a sugary tone and a smile Kyoya was sure was her "host" equivalent.

"Then let us guide you!" Tamaki said as he looped Bea's arm around his before leading her off. Kyoya and Melody watched as Tamaki half dragged poor Bea across the courtyard into the main building, jabbering on about everything they passed.

"Shall we?" Kyoya offered his arm to Melody with his best host smile.

"Sure!" she said, her sugary-fake smile still in place. "If you can keep up, that is," she before skipping off after her friend and Tamaki.

_This could be_ very _interesting_ , Kyoya smiled as he followed after her.

* * *

After getting their schedules, Bea and Melody agreed to meet up at lunch. After splitting up with her best friend, Bea found her way to classroom 1-A and found Haruhi being pestered by twin redheads that were taller than Melody by an inch.

"Hi, Haruhi," Bea greeted her friend, effectively cutting off the annoyance. "Do you need any help?" she asked timidly.

"Oh, hey! No, I'm fine," Haruhi greeted her with a smile. "We should sit down before class starts."

By this point, the twins who had been annoying Haruhi, had sat in the far back of the classroom in the last two seats by the window. By this point, the only seats left were in the last row right beside them. Haruhi sat next to one of the twins and Bea sat on her other side. They settled in as the instructor walked into the room.

Meanwhile, Melody made her way to classroom 3-A, where she found an open seat in the far back corner of the classroom. She immediately pulled out her laptop and pulled up her current rough draft, trying to add a few more paragraphs before class started.

"Why aren't you wearing the uniform?" a cheerful voice chirped beside her. Melody looked up to see a six foot and two inch, muscular, and silent man with a small blonde boy who looked to be five inches shorter than her best friend.

"Because that yellow is horrendous, and I wouldn't be caught dead in it," she replied with a short smile before going back to her writing.

"What are you working on Mel-chan?"

Melody sat back and tried to clear her head by slowly shaking it a few times before turning back to the boy lolita. " _What_ did you just call me?" she asked in her sickly sweet voice.

"Mitsukuni, stay back," the tall one said, while pushing his smaller friend behind him.

"But, Takashi, she's just sad because she's so scary and has secluded herself so that no one but us wants to be her friends," the one known as Mitsukuni said as he stepped around the one known as Takashi. Both Melody's and Takashi's eyebrows raised at his comment, but Takashi's eyes widened in concern as Melody's darkened in anger.

"Mitsukuni, we should find our seats," Takashi said in warning.

"Please," Melody said in her sweetest voice. "Morinozuka Takashi and Haninozuka Mitsukuni, there are two empty seats beside me, and I would _love it_ if you would sit with me."

By this point, Mitsukuni was hiding behind Takashi. "Takashi? How does she know our names if we haven't introduced ourselves?"

"I've done my research," Melody shook herself out of her poisonously sweet mode to explain with a honest smile, "I know a lot about everyone's general information at this school. I'm sorry for being harsh before, but I don't like it when people disturb me when I'm writing."

"That's okay Mel-chan!" Hunny smiled as Melody's aura turned dark again for a moment, before she shrugged it off.

"There's no way you're going to stop calling me by that nickname, is there?" she sighed as she saved her progress and started to shut down her laptop.

"Nope!" Hunny smiled. "It's just cuter that way!"

"Very well," Melody surrendered. "I really don't like nicknames, but I'll allow only you to call me 'Mel-chan' if you both allow me to call you by your first names," she compromised.

"Deal!" Hunny smiled as he took the seat next to Melody, Takashi taking the seat on his other side.

At that point, the teacher came in and orientation started and lasted until lunch. As Hunny, Mori, and Melody walked to the cafeteria, they were met by Tamaki and Kyoya in the hallway.

"Tama-chan! Kyo-chan!" Hunny called to the two younger men as he bounced over to greet them.

"Why am I _not_ surprised that you all know each other?" Melody muttered under her breath as she followed after the four men.

Halfway to the cafeteria, Hunny called out, "Kao-chan! Hika-chan!" but before he could finish, the 4 boys had been pushed out of the way as easily as if they were bowling pins as Melody barrelled past towards the newcomers.

"Haruhi!" she called, much to the shock and surprise of the men surrounding them. "Come eat lunch with me!"

"But I was going to go to the libr—"

"You can do that _after_ _we eat_!" Melody cut off the wide-eyed Haruhi with a meaningful look, before dragging her into the lunchroom. The six boys looked at each other before shrugging and following them into the cafeteria. When they entered the cafeteria, they saw Melody and Haruhi chatting animatedly with the girl behind the counter. Not caring, Kyoya walked straight up and greeted her with his order. Tamaki, Hikaru, and Kaoru quickly followed, while Mori remained frozen, eyeing the short and curvy girl behind the counter.

"Takashi?" Hunny asked, noticing his friend's raised eyebrows.

"Sorry," Mori replied before following after their friends.

"Kyoya! Why is this princess slaving away to her death in the kitchens?!" Tamaki exclaimed.

"Oh, you again," Bea greeted Tamaki. "I'm actually still not a princess. I study in here under Chef Momoi to help pay for this school and to learn more so I may become a master chef one day. Melody is able to pay for her schooling with the earnings from her stocks and books."

"Oh you shall be our Cinderella! Locked away in the evil tower!" Tamaki exclaimed, completely ignoring the fact that she had said that she _wanted_ to be in the kitchens.

"Wrong fairy-tale," Beatrice sighed as she passed him his lunch and moved on to the next student.

"Hey, I'm leaving after lunch today since I'm behind on a deadline that I _need_ to finish a draft for. Can you get home by yourself?" Melody asked Beatrice.

"Of course!" Beatrice replied. "We only live two blocks away. I can walk with Haruhi."

"But I'm planning on staying and trying to find some quiet place to study," Haruhi cut in.

"I can still make it home safe," Beatrice insisted. "Besides, I do need to stay right after class everyday to have my official lessons with Chef Momoi."

"Fine," Melody grudgingly agreed, before the three of them split up. "Just text me when you're on your way home, please?"

"Of course Mel! Enjoy your lunch," Beatrice smiled before everyone split off to enjoy their meal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's chapter 3! Hope you guys enjoy!
> 
> Just so you know for reference, Melody only wears her glasses half of the time. Like me, she's near sighted and only has a slight astigmatism so that she needs glasses to see long distances for driving, movies, and to see the board better in the classroom, but she can see fine without them, so she'll take them off if she doesn't need them (like when she's writing on her computer or hanging out at home).


	4. Hunny and Mori Find Out

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AUTHOR'S NOTE: Like every other writer and reader in this genre, we do not own Ouran, but wish we did... Too bad we don't...
> 
> I was specific about the heights in reference to the manga bio pages, but I'll copy them here for reference:  
> Hunny: 4'9"  
> Haruhi: 5'0"  
> Beatrice: 5'2"  
> Melody: 5'8"  
> Hikaru: 5'9"  
> Kaoru: 5'9"  
> Kyoya: 5'10"  
> Tamaki: 6'0"  
> Mori: 6'2"

Later that evening, Bea was cooking in the kitchen of their 3 bedroom apartment as Melody was editing the chapter she had finished earlier that day in her office. Like Haruhi and Ranka's apartment, they had a living room with a kitchen to the left, two bedrooms at the back, and a spare office to the right. Melody has converted the spare room into a writing office and piano room. Since the room was soundproofed, she would have no trouble working from home to finish her writing and practice on her piano. At the back of the apartment, the two bedrooms shared a connecting bathroom. Beatrice had taken residence in the left bedroom (so that she could be closer to the kitchen) and Melody (never wanting to be too far from her work) had laid claim to the bedroom on the right.

Bea was working on making Japanese style Salisbury steak when she heard a soft, but frantic knock on the door. Calling out that she would be there in a minute, Bea turned the heat on the stove down before scurrying over to the door.

"Haruhi?!" Beatrice exclaimed in shock seeing the unconscious girl in her senpai's arms. "And Morinozuka and Haninozuka senpais? What's going on? What's happened? Is she okay? What's wrong? How did this happen? Do you want to stay for dinner?" Beatrice fired question after question in concern as she led the tall, stoic man to her room to lay the stirring girl down. After making sure Haruhi was okay and now regaining consciousness, she escorted Mori out to the living room where Hunny had made himself comfortable to allow Haruhi some privacy to change.

"Thank you Bea-chan! We'd love to stay for dinner, right Takashi? And you can call us Hunny and Mori like everyone else, if you want?" Hunny called cheerfully as his cousin settled down next to him at the kotatsu.

"Please make yourselves at home!" Bea said as she scurried back towards the kitchen.

"Thank you" Hunny chirped. "Where's Mel-chan?"

"She's—" Bea started, before the door to the office slammed open.

"What's with all of the racket?" Melody grumbled, exiting her office. "I can't hear myself think."

"Hunny-senpai and Mori-senpai were kind enough to escort Haruhi home," Bea called from the kitchen before poking her head out. "Isn't that _nice_?" she asked her friend with a pointed look.

Melody's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Very nice," she agreed to her friend's comment, "And as grateful as I am that Haruhi had two handsome escorts, I'm just curious why Mitsukuni and Takashi took it upon themselves to bring her here when it is in the opposite direction of their own homes." Melody stated with a questioning tone. "Especially since it's the first day of school, so they shouldn't even know her?"

"Her?" Hunny asked surprised, but was not heard by the two other girls.

"She was unconscious when they brought her. She's now changing in the bedroom, but could you please check on her?" Bea called from the kitchen as Melody nodded and made her way to Bea's room to check on Haruhi.

Hunny took the brief absence of their hostesses to whisper to his cousin, "Did they just refer to Haru-chan as a girl?"

"Yeah," Mori pointed in the direction that Melody had recently disappeared. Standing in the doorway was Haruhi in one of Melody's band t-shirts and comfortable sweats rolled up at the bottom to make up for their difference in height, revealing the slight identifiable curves Mori had accidentally felt while carrying her to the car and to the door.

"Haru-chan! You look so cute!" Hunny exclaimed in surprise at his kohai's "big reveal."

"Uhhh... Thanks sempai," Haruhi grumbled.

"Now that we know that Haruhi is okay," Melody started with a sweet smile to her friend, before immediately dropping her sweet tone to glare daggers at the boys, " _what happened_?!" Melody stormed around Haruhi, whom she had followed out of the bedroom. "What do you mean Haruhi was unconscious? What's going on? Are you okay?" Melody asked, slightly frantic and upset that her friend had been hurt.

Sensing danger in her panic, Mori shoved his cousin behind him, "Mitsukuni, get back."

"Is that going to be some sort of running gag with you?!" Melody exclaimed at her classmate, her ire rising as she flung her hands in the air.

"Now, now, let's all calm down," Bea came out of the kitchen, wiping her hands off on a towel. "You can hold off on the killing until we've heard their explanation. Haruhi and Melody, would you mind helping me to set the table?"

"Okay," Haruhi agreed heading towards the kitchen, a fuming (but silent) Melody close on her heels. Once dinner was set on the table and everyone had been served, the two elder boys and Haruhi started explaining everything that had happened up until the point that Haruhi had fainted.

"So Haruhi was looking for a place to study," Melody started.

"And she found what she thought was an abandoned music room?" Bea asked.

"She ran into the Blonde-baka who proceeded to harass her."

"And she backed into a vase?"

"So you're saying she has to be your _dog_?!" Melody was fuming by this point as Bea was just confused.

"I don't understand... How much was the vase worth?" The younger of the two asked.

"8 million yen," Haruhi grumbled.

The two roommates turned to look at each other before sharing a blink. After a moment, the older girl started laughing hysterically while the other two first years just looked at her questioningly. After her giggles calmed down, she apologized. "I'm sorry Haruhi, I really am, but there's nothing we can do to help you. You're on your own in this."

"Oh Melody... Maybe we _can_ help somehow..." Bea started. "I just made some rice crispy treats for us tonight, maybe we can make some more to help her make a better first impression tomorrow?"

"Treats?" Hunny piped up interested.

"Yes, I set them aside after cooking dinner," Bea said as she went to grab the marshmallow treats from the kitchen as the other two girls cleared the plates.

"Just bring the entire tray to the table," Melody told her closest friend as they both met up in the kitchen.

"But... But presentation..." Bea whimpered.

"It won't matter for more than two minutes," Melody countered when they heard another knock on the door. "Did you see Mitsukuni put away that cake at lunch?" she asked as she headed to answer the door to greet a delivery man.

After thanking him for delivering so late and signing for the large package, she headed back to the living room where she saw Mitsukuni had a treat in the shape of a bunny, Haruhi serving herself, and Bea serving Takashi a small slice to try. The small scene felt so natural it unnerved her, and yet she felt something large was missing and could not explain it. Something deep within told her that gap would be filled with time.

"Who was at the door?" Bea asked.

"Just a deliveryman bringing a large package for me."

"Were you missing some equipment?" Bea asked curiously as Melody started to open the box.

"No, I brought it all with us," Melody replied, looking at the return address. "It's actually from the school."

"What would the school be sending you?" Haruhi piped up as Mel finally got the box open.

"Oh no..." Melody said in horror, slowly backing away from the box. "I am _not_ wearing that."

Inside the box was her new blue uniform.


	5. Beatrice joins the Host Club

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AUTHOR'S NOTE: If we owned Ouran High School Host Club, do you really think we'd be writing on this site?

The next morning, the three friends headed towards the West building of Ouran High school. Haruhi had been ordered to bring groceries and the Host Club wanted to give Haruhi the run-down of the host club before school. Beatrice offered to go with her as Melody ran to the Chairman's office, planning on joining the other girls in the host club room later. After discussing the new information of Haruhi's gender the previous night, Mori and Hunny had extended an invitation to Melody and Beatrice to join them in the club meeting the next morning, planning on revealing it to the rest of the club.

That morning, the Host club was going about their buisness as usual when Haruhi and Bea walked into their clubroom.

"Haru-chan and Bea-chan, you look so cute!" Hunny exclaimed jumping up from his whipped cream covered hot chocolate and coffee cake.

"Hunny-sempai! I thought you agreed to eat healthier last night!" Bea exclaimed, running over with a pre-packed bento to fuss over her sempai's bad eating habits. "Here, I made you a some breakfast that will be better for you! Here's some yogurt and fruit," she said, revealing a dish of bunny-shaped apples covered in a layer of vanilla yogurt.

"Last night?" exclaimed Tamaki as he turned a bright shade of red. "You two went to visit princesses Beatrice and Melody without a chaperone?! I thought we raised you to be better gentlemen than that here!"

"What are you talking about Tama-chan?" Hunny asked, mouth full of fruit and yogurt, much to the happiness of Bea.

"When we brought the unconscious Haruhi home last night, her apartment was locked, so we knocked on her neighbor's door and Beatrice and Melody answered and invited us to stay for dinner in appreciation of us bringing her home," Mori explained to the confused younger men in the room. Out of the three men still out of the loop, only one of the twins' ears twitched at what Mori revealed and he elbowed his brother before whispering in his ear.

"Yeah!" Hunny exclaimed. "And because they were so kind, we invited them to join us this morning."

What Hunny didn't say to the others was that he had texted Kyoya the night before, asking if they could have Beatrice make the sweets for the Host club from that point forwards. Already on-board with the idea since it would save money to have the sweets made at school, seeing Hunny eat a healthy, low-budget snack sealed the deal for Kyoya as he went to work typing on his computer. By the time school got out that day, Bea would be offered a way to make extra money in an after-school "job" with the Host Club.

"So _this_ is the infamous Host Club," Melody said, entering the room as if she owned the place. "Why is this called a 'music room' if there are no instruments?" She asked as she snooped around. "Moreover, why is there a full kitchen in what is _supposed_ to be a 'music room'?" she asked after opening one of the doors.

"Kitchen?" Bea chirped perking up from her seat next to Hunny. Before anyone knew what had happened, Bea had already crossed the room and entered the expansive on-suite kitchen. "It's fully stocked!" they heard her squeak happily from within.

"And she's hugging an industrial-sized mixer," Melody grumbled as she closed the door, leaving her best friend to have some alone time with the kitchenware. Before she knew what was happening, Melody was already being circled by twin red-heads. "Why are they circling me like vultures would circle a dying animal?" she asked no one in particular.

"Our mother's a fashion designer," one with a lower, gravely voice started, with a smirk.

"And we totally love your uniform," the higher-pitched one continued.

"We just wonder if this one is in dress-code!" They finished together beaming, referring to her out of uniform outfit the day before.

Melody was dressed in her custom-made uniform that was a combination of Ouran's male and female uniforms. In more of the style of the male uniform, she wore a white collared button-up shirt, a loosely tied black and purple striped tie, and a fitted blue blazer. The uniform kept with the colors of the male uniform, but the skirt mirrored the style of the female uniform with gray stockings and a poofy, flowing black skirt that ended just below her knees.

"I just had the Chairman approve it. He liked it so much that he almost decided to change all of the female uniforms, but I reminded him of the high cost of doing that now and he agreed it was probably not in the school's interest anyway since most of the female students like those yellow monstrosities," Melody replied to their jab with a smile. "And my question stands on the instruments," she addressed the others in the room.

"Well we do have a grand piano," Kyoya smiled over his computer.

"Of course, my princess!" Tamaki added with flourish as he pulled back a curtain to reveal a lovely grand piano. "Please allow me to play for you," he said as he took a seat. Expecting the classical music Tamaki was known to play, all of the hosts closed their eyes in expectation of Mozart, but were surprised when they heard a more modern song being played. Looking over at the piano, they were all surprised to see Melody had crossed the room and was happily playing at the bench as Tamaki was becoming intimately acquainted with the wall as he had been flung into it.

"I see Melody has found the piano," Bea said as she exited the kitchen carrying a tray of fruit and yogurt tarts. "I hope you don't mind, but I felt bad that we had interrupted your meeting this morning so I whipped up some breakfast for all of you. It's just some sliced strawberries and yogurt in a graham cracker crust that I toasted and caramelized with a torch, but I also made some coffee and tea in apology for our disturbance," she explained as she lay out the simple spread.

After tasting her sweet pastries, all of the hosts started hounding Kyoya to "hire" her at once. Kyoya sighed. Apparently, Bea would be asked to cook for the Host club far sooner than he had planned. Getting up from his computer, Kyoya pulled Bea aside. "Ms. Dewitt, would you like to—"

"No." Melody said in a matter-of-fact tone, materializing next to her friend. "She is _not_ joining the Host Club as your slave like Haruhi."

Kyoya blinked, "I never said she would be a slave to us. We are planning on compensating her."

"She doesn't need _compensation_!" Melody insisted. "We both are here on scholarship and she has a job in the kitchens after school that keeps her plenty busy! Use that and the money from my books and we are more than taken care of."

"There is no need to be defensive," Kyoya said, trying to bring the situation back in the club's favor. "There is nothing wrong in needing more money."

"Excuse me? Defensive? Needing money? At least everything we have, we earned through our own accomplishments. Unlike you, we didn't have _daddy_ paying for everything. I built my own name as a self-published author when I was 15 and now, almost two years later, I'm internationally known. Unlike you, who's struggling just to get d _addy's_ approval to become heir of d _addy's_ company, I actually went out and made a name for myself when everyone told me I couldn't," Melody snarled at him, her dark aura seeping out.

"Excuse me?" Kyoya asked, his own dark aura quickly joining hers in darkening the room that sunny morning.

Bea quickly tried to step in, "Mel, I really think that—"

"I did a background check on all of you last night after Haruhi came home and explained to us what happened," Melody replied to Kyoya, ignoring her best friend. "Seems like you have a lot of work ahead of you if you want to outshine your older brothers to become heir."

Quickly realizing she was taking it too far, Bea stepped in and barked at her friend. "Melody, this doesn't involve you. It's my decision whether or not I join the Host club."

Rounding on her best friend, Melody exclaimed in shock, "What?"

In a calmer tone, Bea continued, "I appreciate your concern, but I don't you to feel like you have to take care of me all of the time. While we _don't_ need the money," she said, sending Kyoya a pointed look, "and _won't_ be accepting any, I've been thinking about joining a club after my lessons with Chef Momoi after school. As long as joining this club doesn't interfere with that, why can't I be a part of the Host club?"

"But what merit is there in the Host Club?" Melody responded. "What do they even do?"

"It is the job of the Host Club to make every girl happy!" Tamaki inserted, joining the conversation.

"By showering girls with flowery words and false promises?" Haruhi asked. "I just don't get it."

"Me either," Melody continued. "I can appreciate you wanting to join a club, but why do you really want to join this one? It's a club based on a bunch of guys shamelessly flirting with the girls here."

"Who are you to judge on flirting?" Bea fired back with a sharp look. "You do it _all the time_ to make connections for your books." Kyoya raised his eyebrows at this. "Besides, I think it could be fun to be in a club with Haruhi. She owes a debt to this club so she doesn't have a choice to join another, and I think it could be fun."

"Fine," Melody said with a sense of finality, even as a dark cloud surrounded her. "Do whatever you want. Be a host. Make their food. I don't care. Just don't come crying to me if you find out you hate it. Class is going to start soon. Mitsukuni, would you mind walking with me to class?" she demanded more than asked as she threw her book bag over her shoulder.

"Sure Mel-chan! Takashi, you coming?" Hunny chirped, as he polished off the rest of his breakfast pastry and grabbed his belongings. Mori shook his head as he placed his hand on Bea's shoulder.

"I'll walk Beatrice and Haruhi to class," he said.

"Thank you Mori-senpai," Bea with a half-smile, still slightly deflated after her argument with Melody. Haruhi nodded in agreement

The five students got ready and left the rest of the occupants in Music Room 3 in a state of shock as they headed to their classes.

"Did someone really just challenge the Shadow King?" Tamaki asked the twins in shock as they started gathering their belongings for class as Kyoya went back to typing on his computer, having his first period off as a study hall.

"Forget that!" Hikaru started. "Did you just hear Mori-senpai speak?"

"That was like a full sentence!" Kaoru exclaimed as they also left the club room to head off to their second day of school.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please Favorite, Follow, and/or Review!


	6. Melody joins the Host Club

The morning passed in a state of relative calm until lunchtime, when goodness fled the world and all hell broke loose.

The host club was gathered at their usual table, trying to understand their new state of "normal". The twins and Tamaki were discussing new cosplays for this school year (all pre-approved by Kyoya) while trying to ignore the tension in the air. Mori was trying to not be too obvious in staring at the short and curvy girl behind the counter as Hunny was smirking at his cousin. It hadn't taken 24 hours for Mori to develop a serious crush on the blushing girl. Honey knew he was planning on meddling in his cousin's love life, especially when he so obviously liked Bea but had too much loyalty to his family and 'honor' do anything about it. The person who he planned on having be his future accomplice was none other than the girl currently wreaking havoc on the resident Shadow King's patience and mind. Melody was practically dancing around, twirling, flirting, and showing off her new uniform to everyone immediately surrounding the table the host club was residing at, while intentionally ignoring them.

After their confrontation earlier, Kyoya had spent the morning trying to dig up anything he could on Melody and Beatrice. Frustratingly, all of their early files were expertly and legally sealed. From what he was able to dig up, he'd have to break into her safety deposit box in a bank in London to get a physical copy of her file since all of her files were sealed in her own personal property along with Beatrice's paperwork since the girls became emancipated minors. The only thing he could find on the shameless flirt dancing around his patience was that all records of hers seemed to become top-secret at the same time her step-father was thrown in jail. Taking a break from the frustrating mystery, Kyoya was currently working on the club's budget and finances for this semester on his laptop when he felt another presence pop up behind him. After inhaling a whiff of her perfume, he internally groaned while externally keeping up his best host's smile.

"You know, if you decrease the budget for cosplay by 5%, and transfer that money to advertising, you could have a thousand dollars extra here, and two thousand extra there while increasing your outreach," Melody's voice appeared right by his ear as her long, slender finger pointed at different sections of the screen. "Not to mention all of the overspending you seem to be doing in terms of groceries. What, do you import your sugar from Morocco? I mean seriously!" Melody leaned on the back of his chair as she leaned over his shoulder. "Not to mention, you forgot to carry the one here... And it's an automated program, so I have no idea how you were able to mess that up! Plus, you're only reaching out to half of your possible clientele. Have you ever considered having girls host men?"

As she spoke, Kyoya could not help as his smile disappeared and tick marks appeared above his head. The hosts all sensed as his demon aura started to appear and looked up to see him sitting stiffly at his laptop as Melody was practically draped over his shoulders. Sensing the upcoming danger in the conversation, Beatrice had started to make her way to the table, only to make a U-turn to escape as soon as she heard Kyoya ask Mel in a dark tone "Excuse me?"

"Men!" Tamaki exclaimed with a flourish, gaining the attention of everyone in the surrounding area, including the two 'fighting' teens. "The Hosts need to have a meeting in the club room. Now. Melody, would you mind joining us?" In more hushed tones, he told the surrounding men who to grab/drag to the Music Room as Kyoya and Melody glared at each other, silently daring the other to continue. Mori swept a fleeing Bea up to cradle her in one arm as he collected and carried their bags back to the group in the other. Bea was too surprised to do anything but blush and babble incoherently as she _tried_ to ask him to put her down.

Hunny couldn't help but giggling in amusement as Mori entrusted Bea into his care. "Come on Bea-chan! Let's go to the club room!" Hunny said cheerfully as he took her hand and bounced down the hallway, dragging a confused Beatrice out of the cafeteria. The twins left to go grab Haruhi from the classroom as Mori and Tamaki assessed the current situation. Despite their normally professional demeanors, Kyoya and Melody were having a stare-down that looked like a civil discussion to everyone else since they were both wearing their best fake smiles, but their two friends recognized they were about to go after each other's throats. Mori made the decision to grab Melody by her collar to subtely pull her away before escorting her out of the cafeteria with a firm hand at the small of her back. This left Tamaki to take care of the Demon Lord of the Host Club. Fortunately for him, Kyoya had enough sense to pack up his bag and follow his friends to the club room without making a scene.

By the time Kyoya and Tamaki joined the others, Melody had broken down to yelling in anger as Bea, Mori, and Honey tried to calm her. Haruhi's meal had been interrupted and the twins (wiser than they looked) knew better than to be egging Melody on, both focused their energy on trying to bother the new natural host as she ate at one of the couches.

"Haruhi, be sure not to leave any crumbs on the couches, would you?" Kyoya said as he walked in, barely sending her a glance as his dark aura surrounded him as he faced Melody in what Hunny and Mori knew would be the first of many memorable arguments.

"Did you have a problem with something I said pretty boy? Or were you too busy trying to look into our files to think of a retort?" Melody snarled at Kyoya, all prior illusions of ladylike behavior temporarily abandoned in her anger.

"Wait!" Bea snapped, causing everyone to go silent as the girl who would soon be known as the sweet hostess took on a demeanor too close to Melody's for anyone's comfort. "He did _WHAT_?!" she asked as she turned to pierce Kyoya with a glare that would put disappointed mothers to shame.

"If you have information on me, why shouldn't I have information on you?" Kyoya countered Melody as he tried to ignore the slight effect Beatrice's glare had.

"How much do you know?" Bea asked feverishly, not willing to be ignored.

"It doesn't matter what he does or doesn't know Bea," Melody comforted her friend as her eyes never left Kyoya. "Karly called me earlier to let me know someone was _trying_ to break into our files, but everything important is sealed, so if he opens them, he's breaking multiple laws and his reputation would never allow a stain like that to appear on his records, right Kyoya?," Melody asked her rival rhetorically. "I was just annoyed that he thought he had a right to try to dig into our past just because he has money. I'm honestly more curious about those numbers on his computer than his failed attempt to dig up blackmail on us. Did you find fault in what I said?"

"You can't just bring something up like that and then drop it Mel!" Bea exclaimed.

"I didn't find fault in what you said, I'm just curious what made you think you could look at my classified documents when I can't look at yours," Kyoya calmly replied to Melody.

"Am I being ignored?" a still-upset Beatrice exclaimed.

"I hardly think a basic background check and looking at the school's open records for your club's budget can be compared to the security of government-sealed documents, _Kyoya_!" Melody replied heatedly.

"What made you think I'd allow you to call me by my first name, _Melody_?" Kyoya replied with a glare.

"Well if I'm being ignored anyway, I might as well tell you now that I'm going on a date with Mori-senpai this Saturday so you'll need to feed yourself!" Bea exclaimed.

"WHAT?!" Hunny leapt up. This was not expected. He couldn't believe his cousin had actually asked a girl out within 24 hours of knowing her, despite how much Mori obviously liked her. "When did this happen? Takashi, are you abandoning me?"

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN HARUHI'S A GIRL?" Tamaki exclaimed from across the room.

At this, everything dissolved into a mass panic/fight. For some reason or another, Melody and Kyoya were arguing about sealed files and club budgets as Bea tried to inject herself into their fight because she and Mel hadn't finished their fight earlier and she was pissed that Kyoya had tried to read their files. Honey was giving Mori the second degree about what happened with Bea as Mori tried to pay attention to the others' arguments. The twins were teasing a beet-red Tamaki who was babbling nonsense about Haruhi being a cross-dresser while waving his arms in wild and grand gestures. Haruhi just sat there, her sandwich halfway between the plate and her mouth, staring dumbfounded at the chaos before her.

"Alright, ENOUGH!" Haruhi shouted as she dropped her sandwich back into her bento and stood up to glare at everyone. "This is getting insane! Melody! Are you seriously trying to cause fights just for the sake of causing fights? Honestly! And Bea! I understand why you're worried about them finding out, but do you really think these guys can do anything to unseal those files? From what you told me, the freaking Pentagon wouldn't be able to open them without your permission, let alone a few damn rich bastards!"

Everyone was taken aback at her outburst, but Kyoya was the first to compose himself. "Haruhi, do you really think you should talk about us like that when you still owe us 8 million yen?" he asked calmly.

"And _you_!" Haruhi spun on Kyoya, "Could you not threaten someone for like _5 minutes_?! I get that we aren't as rich as you all, but you've been nothing but extremely condescending since we met. Yes, I owe you guys money. Yes, _some_ 'commoners' don't repay their debts. But I'm not like them! My parents raised me right! You don't need to start every conversation with me by reminding me that I broke an overpriced flower pot!" By the time she was done, she was practically panting in anger. Kyoya raised his eyebrows in surprise, but didn't say anything as Haruhi turned on the two cousins. "Hunny-senpai, do you really think Mori-senpai would abandon you forever to go on a date with the girl he can't take his eyes off of? And Mori-senpai, seriously, it's getting weirdly creepy for the rest of us! You only talked for the first time last night!" she reprimanded, effectively making Mori and Bea blush bright red. "And you three," she turned to the twins and Tamaki, "Can you not be busybodies for the sake of seeking attention for more than two seconds? Yes, I'm a girl, but I don't think that really matters! What does matter is what's on the inside more than the outside. Now, you guys have known us three girls for less than a week and we've dissolved into this chaos. If we're all going to be in a club together, we need to learn to get along!"

"What do you mean we're all going to be in a club together?" Hikaru questioned.

"Yeah," Kaoru added, "What about Melody-senpai?"

"She's obviously harassing Kyoya-senpai about the budget because she plans on joining the club to stay close to me and Beatrice," Haruhi deadpanned. At this, everyone froze and turned to stare at Melody.

"Are you?" Bea asked in surprise and a little bit of hope. She knew that Melody hated when she had to flirt to make connections for work, but couldn't think of anything more fun than being in a club with her best friend.

"Well..." Melody started looking at her feet, obviously slightly embarrassed at being called out on her childlike behavior. "The club obviously needs me if _Kyoya_ can't figure out how to best calculate numbers out in an automated program," she said defensively.

"Oh for goodness sake, Mel!" Bea reprimanded. "What did Haruhi just say about causing fights for the sake of causing fights?"

"She said I _was_ causing fights for the sake of causing fights," Melody replied snappily. "She never said anything about me stopping."

"It. Was. _IMPLIED_!" Bea shouted. "Honestly! Would it kill you to be honest with me for once? You spend all of this time, energy, and resources trying to protect me, when really all you do is make me worry about you! Instead of you taking care of me, I have to watch you like a hawk to make sure you get proper nutrition and enough rest. You're always busier than a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest! You'd work yourself to death if I didn't stop you! Do you have any idea how that makes me feel to watch you do that to yourself? Do you even care? There's a difference between 'passion for your craft' and 'insanity' Mel, and you spend all of your time dancing back and forth between the two." By the time she was done, there were tears of frustration running down her face.

Mori instinctively tried to walk towards her, but Haruhi stopped him, shaking her head. "Let them finish," she whispered to him.

"Like you even notice since we've gotten here!" Melody glared at her friend, trying to hide the small stab of hurt that she felt. "I thought we moved here so you could study under a Japanese culinary master, not to frolic around with a _host club_!" Melody shouted back. "I'm willing to move anywhere to support you in your dreams, but we just moved halfway around the world and you already seem to be abandoning the main reason we moved here!"

"I don't want to live my life always focused on work, Mel! I want to enjoy my time here and make friends! I'm not abandoning the reason we came here, I'm just trying to enjoy school life for once! The Host club seems like a great way to do that!" Bea defended. "I mean look at us," she practically chuckled, as tears still slid down her face. "We're screaming at each other in the middle of a music room and neither of us are screaming the lyrics from a musical. Did you _ever_ think we'd do something like that at this school? You're so focused on work all the time, but you're only 17! I'm 15! The government may see us as registered adults, but we are still kids! I know what you're worried about, but we need to have fun at some point, right?"

At this, Melody didn't know how to respond. Her friend wasn't wrong and she realized that she _had_ been spending too much energy focused on trying to act like an adult but she wasn't only an accomplished author; she was a teenager. Releasing the tension from her body, she smiled at her best friend. "So what do you propose we sing then?"

At this, Bea laughed and ran to hug her friend. She knew that their journey wasn't easy and that it was far from over, but she knew they'd make it through any obstacle together.

"So what do you say guys? Can I join the club?"

The hosts all shared a look as they looked at the three girls in their presence and knew their lives would never be the same.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks a lot for reading! Please let us know what you think!


	7. The Job of a High School Host: Part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pssst... Alyssa (Emily's boss) is amazing and gave us tamales... So I'm deciding to dedicate this chapter to her.

The final bell rang, announcing the end of the day. Haruhi grimaced as she paused to close her textbooks in the library. Rushing to the club room, Haruhi muttered to herself, "I'm never going to hear the end of it I'm late." It had been a whole week since "the fight." After things had died down, she had joined the Host club as a male host and the other girls had joined the club as official members. Taking a moment to calm her heart-rate as she reached the club-room, Haruhi took a breath and pushed the doors to Music Room 3 open.

She opened the door and the whole place was decked out like a tropical paradise. Paradise. _Pfft_. More like tropical hell... What the hell was going on?

"What's this? Where am I?"

"Welcome," the hosts greeted from an obviously choreographed group pose, all wearing very revealing Bali-themed outfits.

_Can you see this from heaven mom? This is the club I was forced to join._

"You finally made it Haruhi. You are so late," the twins chorused in a bored, yet reprimanding tone.

Pulling out her school planner just to be sure, Haruhi grumbled, "I may be wrong, but my calendar says it's still early spring."

"Cuddling under the kotatsu fearing the cold is nonsense! And besides, the heating system we have is... the best!" Tamaki said with a flourish after a pause. Haruhi visibly grimaced.

"Do you have a problem with the way we run our club, Haruhi?" Kyoya asked. "Be careful what you say, you owe us 8 million yen, remember?"

At the mention of her debt, Haruhi flinched.

Ignoring (or just not noticing the exchange between Kyoya and Haruhi) Tamaki continued with his earlier monologue. "Gentlemen don't bundle up in bulky clothing. It may be chilly early spring out there in the real world, but here at the club we want to surprise our chilly little kittens with a warm paradise." As he talked, Tamaki had moved to wrap an arm around the sulking Haruhi. "Oh yes! We've turned this place into Nirvana. A balmy tropical island of everlasting summer!"

"That's funny, cause I feel a massive chill right now," Haruhi said from under his arm as he sparkled happily.

"You should _really_ get off of her Tamaki-chan," Melody popped up beside them with a smirk. "How else will she be able to get changed?"

When Haruhi looked at her friend, she noticed that Melody was dressed in a style very similar to the gentlemen surrounding her. Since revealing skin seemed to be the theme of today, Melody's curled hair was tied up in a high ponytail, her ankle-length skirt flowed around her legs as she moved and her top was... very revealing to say the least. Her neck adorned with gold jewelry similar to what the other hosts wore—Haruhi briefly wondered if it was costume jewelry or real—and her chest was covered in a top nearly identical to what Disney's Princess Jasmine wore. A modest yet midriff-revealing teal bikini top was accompanied by a lighter sash, allowing her toned midsection and attractive curves to be shown off.

"I am _not_ wearing that," Haruhi deadpanned.

"Of course not," Melody smirked. "I am."

"Not all of the costumes are the same, Haruhi," Beatrice materialized beside her, dressed very differently than her smirking counterpart. She was dressed in a very attractive purple sundress that complimented her hair and figure. The upper section was a darker purple that hugged her body like a glove, but when the dress met her waist where a decorative gold belt sat, it flowed out like Melody's skirt and the color progressively faded to white in the ombre style. The straps of her dress were made of gold links similar in style to the jewelry and her wrists had several matching bangles. Her hair was tied up in a fancy bun that had gold ribbons woven in. At second glance, Haruhi noticed that Melody had similar strands woven into her hair. Both girls had stylized makeup and Melody wasn't wearing her usual large-frame glasses.

"Do neither of you find this ridiculous?" Haruhi asked, taking a brief moment to notice that Tamaki had disappeared from her side when the two girls appeared. The twins were "getting into character" as they hung off of each other and Honey was perched on Mori's shoulders as he ran them around the room. Kyoya had moved to his seat and was typing on his laptop and Tamaki had vanished. "And Melody, no glasses today?"

"Not really," Bea smiled, answering Haruhi's first question. "We loved to go cosplaying in America when we had the chance. It's not too different from Halloween."

"Exactly," Melody nodded in agreement with a smile. "It's fun! And to answer your second question, you know I'm near-sighted and can actually see just fine without my glasses. Since I don't need to read a blackboard and they don't really match the cosplay, I took them off for the club time. I really only need them to read things far away like blackboards, street signs while I'm driving, or movies. The rest of the time, I'm good, but it's sometimes more convenient to wear them."

"Haruhi! I got your outfit for you!" Tamaki announced. The three girls turned to see the most ridiculous Bali-princess styled outfit ever.

"I stand corrected," Bea said in surprise as Haruhi's jaw dropped and Melody doubled over in unrestrained mirth. "That _is_ ridiculous."

"We can match!" Tamaki said excitedly. At this, Melody fell to the floor in laughter.

"No thank you, senpai," Haruhi deadpanned.

"But Haruhi—" Tamaki started, only to be cut off.

"How am I supposed to conceal my gender if I'm dressed in _that_?" Haruhi continued. "I'll just wear my uniform, thank you."

"But—but... Everyone is supposed to wear cosplay!" Tamaki wailed.

"No," Haruhi said again, "Not unless you provide gender-appropriate cosplay. Everyone thinks I'm a boy due to _you_ giving me the men's uniform. I can't wear a _girl's_ cosplay when I'm supposed to be a _boy_ ," she argued, emphasizing her gender 'dilemma' so as to not leave any room for debate.

"Kyoya!" Tamaki wailed, hoping his best friend and the club's vice president would support him.

"She has a point Tamaki," Kyoya said as he glanced up from his laptop, pushing his glasses up his nose to create a glare. "It's not her fault that you failed to provide a proper cosplay outfit for her."

At this, Tamaki moved to go pout in his corner of woe.

Since the club had opened with its three newest members, everyone knew where their stations were and started moving to get ready for the doors to open. Haruhi and Melody helped Beatrice make and serve the tea and their newly popular commoners coffee. There were 5 stations: shared ones for Mori and Honey, and the twins, and individual ones for Kyoya, Tamaki, and Haruhi. Melody sat at the piano where she played music during club hours and Beatrice would walk around serving all of the guests cakes and beverages from her tea cart. After adding the three girls to the club, the group decided to allow Haruhi to continue acting as a male host to pay off her debt while Melody and Beatrice would serve as the club's entertainment and chef.

"So, we've been 'observing' you guys for the past week and a half," Melody started, "But does the host club actually do anything other than flatter girls with empty promises?"

"Only those with excellent social standing and filthy rich families are allowed to spend their time here at the elite private school, Ouran Academy," Tamaki explained. "The Ouran Host Club is where the school's handsomest boys with too much time on their hands entertain young ladies who also have way too much time on their hands. Just think of it as Ouran Academy's elegant playground for the super rich and beautiful."

At his explanation, everyone sweat-dropped.

"Am I the only one who wants to punch him after that?" Melody's eye twitched. Haruhi and Beatrice nodded their heads in agreement.

"Now, now," Kyoya said with a glare of his glasses, internally pleased that Melody was irritated so that he wasn't the only one, "It's time to open the doors for the ladies." At his cue, everyone got back into position as the doors opened, revealing the first customers of the day.

* * *

"What heartlessness. Even with my lustrous skin shining like brilliant ivory, exposed by my Balinese king outfit, I'm no more than a slave before my goddess. I kneel before you and swear my loyalty," Tamaki wooed a girl who whispered his name in response. Haruhi just gave him the side-eye as she served the ladies their tea. The other ladies at the table had hearts in their eyes as they admired how lucky Tamaki's current victim... sorry, 'princess' was. "Oh yes," Tamaki said, straightening up as if he had only just remembered something important. "I forgot to mention to you ladies: next week the Ouran host club is sponsoring a party."

Haruhi had been walking away, but paused and turned around at his words. "We're throwing a party?"

"What kind of party is it going to be?" Melody asked from across the room at the piano bench, her playing never faltering as she looked away from the sheet music.

"Is it going to be formal?" Bea added in as she gracefully refilled the teacups in front of Kyoya's customers.

"Yes, in fact we've rented the school's largest hall," Hikaru answered.

"It's the perfect place for dancing," Kaoru weighed in.

"But I really wanted to spend some more time with you Kaoru," Hikaru lifted his brother's chin as he stood up, staring down into his brother's eyes.

"Don't be upset Hikaru," Kaoru joined in on their act. "I know exactly how you feel."

"The guests seem to be even more worked up than they usually are," Haruhi observed as two girls sitting at the twins' table started excitedly babbling incoherently.

"Showing some skin proves popular with the ladies," Kyoya replied from next to her as he wrote in his notebook.

"So are you the one who came up with this tropical paradise idea?" Haruhi asked as she stared at everything happening before her.

"I have no decision making authority," Kyoya replied. "As you know, all of the club's policies have been laid out by the club's king, Tamaki. But," He said as he closed his notebook to push his glasses up with a smile. "I guess there's no harm in admitting to slipping a Bali photo book into his desk."

A light bulb went off in Haruhi's head. _So he's the real mastermind behind the operation... I really should have realized that sooner._

"Ta-da!" Hunny announced with a flourish as the girls started to compliment how cute he was. "Hi ladies, I love these Balinese flowers! We had them flown in!"

Overhearing this, Melody sat up straight and glanced over her shoulder at Kyoya with a raised eyebrow. "Really?!" she mouthed in irritation, her fingers never stopping as they flew across the piano keys as if they had a mind of their own.

Since joining the club, she and Kyoya worked together on the club's budget (by Tamaki's demands, of course). They both knew he thought that forcing them to work together would make them get along, but so far all it had accomplished was getting the two even more annoyed at each other as they stayed late nightly to fix and adjust the club's budget. She _thought_ they had discussed and agreed on things together, but apparently Kyoya still wasn't playing nice.

"Takashi!" Hunny hopped over to his cousin as he walked by and climbed his cousin's tall frame the same way a monkey would climb a tree, before throwing a lei over his head. "There! We match!" Honey gushed as he hugged his cousin's neck, effectively making the ladies swoon.

Noticing Bea walk by with her cart, Takashi reached out to grab her wrist. Surprised, she looked up into his eyes with her brown eyes large in confusion. Taking one of the flowers from the table, Mori deftly added it to her hair so that it looked like it was tucked over her ear. "Yeah, we do," he replied to his cousin, the corner of his lips quirking up in a smile so slight only Bea and Honey noticed. If the ladies had been swooning before, they were now a puddle of goo at the sight of Mori's softer side, all imagining what it would be like if the stoic man were their boyfriend. But they knew he was taken by the blushing shorter girl.

After "the fight" the previous week, during which Bea revealed Mori and she were planning on going on a date, the group (primarily Melody) had grilled the two extensively about what was going on. While blushing a deep red that rivaled the color of ripe tomatoes, Bea revealed that Mori had asked her out on the night he and Hunny had brought Haruhi home. She (obviously) had said yes. After finding an instant and undeniable connection on their date the Saturday after _the fight_ , Mori invited Bea to his house the following day for brunch in order to introduce her to his parents as his girlfriend. All of Bea's nerves about meeting the matriarch and patriarch of the Morinozuka family turned out to be for naught as they wholeheartedly gave their approval, just wanting their son to be happy. After gaining his parents approval, they decided that they didn't want to hide their relationship and agreed to announce to the club and the ladies that Mori was off the market. Seeing how happy Mori and Bea were, the hosts agreed and announced it to the ladies at the end of the club time on Monday. Much to everyone's surprise, the guests were more than supportive of their budding relationship and begged Mori to continue hosting with his cousin so they could watch the new couple interact and stoke their flames of moe.

 _I'm still confused by those three_ , Haruhi thought as she sat down with her guests.

"Haruhi?" one of her guests brought her attention back to her guests. "Aren't you going to wear a tropical costume like the other boys?"

"I'd like to see that!" Another girl agreed.

"W-well n-no. I-I just don't think it's appropriate to wear anything but early spring attire in early spring, you know?" she replied with a smile.

"Wow Haruhi! You're really faithful to the seasons, aren't you?" the first girl admired.

"I think that's great!" The second girl added. "I hope we're lucky enough that the cherry blossoms are in full bloom on the night of the party!"

"The two of us dancing under the cherry blossoms," the third girl added wistfully. "It's so dreamy!"

"You really think so?" Haruhi asked with doubt and surprise before smiling warmly. "You know ladies, I think you're cute when you dream like that." Her comment was very effective in making all the girls blush.

"I hate to interrupt," a voice said over Haruhi's shoulder, "but I believe it's time for the hosts to switch clients."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Haruhi apologized. "You must be my next appointment, Ms. uh..."

"My name's Kanako," the young lady smiled. "Kanako Suzuzaki. You're even cuter than I expected," she smiled as she cupped Haruhi's chin. "I've decided.. From now on, you're going to be my new favorite host, Haruhi."

* * *

Later that afternoon after the club had closed its doors to the princesses, the host club (sans Tamaki) gathered around Kyoya's and Melody's work table to continue making preparations for the party.

"I can't take this anymore," Tamaki grumbled as he slurped cup ramen from a different table by the window.

"Hey boss!" Hikaru called from the table the rest of the club was gathered around. "Why don't you stop eating that commoner's ramen and come over here to help us with the party planning?"

"Does it really bother you that Princess Kazuka has taken a liking to Haruhi?" Kaoru questioned from beside his brother.

"He shouldn't be surprised," Kyoya said as he kept typing on his laptop. "She's had the illness for a while now, hasn't she?"

"What illness?" Haruhi asked, concerned.

"She's got the host-hopping disease," Hikaru answered.

"A.K.A. The never going with the same boy twice disease," Kaoru elaborated.

"Usually our customers choose a favorite host and see them regularly," Kyoya explained. "However, Princess Kanako tends to change her favorites on a regular basis."

"That's right!" Hunny weighed in. "Because before she chose you, she was with Tama-chan!"

"Oh," Haruhi said, finally understanding the situation. "So he's upset because I took her from him?"

"Shut up!" Tamaki roared. "I couldn't care less! I'm running out of patience!" He continued dramatically. "Haruhi, it's time you started dressing like a girl!"

"Huh?" Haruhi was confused.

"Well _that_ was an effective try at changing the topic from himself," Melody observed in a distracted tone as she kept typing on her own laptop.

Bea covered her mouth to try to hide her amusement as a chuckle escaped. Mori let out a tiny smile of his own (meaning it was indiscernible to everyone but his cousin and his girlfriend) as he wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her closer into his side.

"I just don't understand how you could be so popular with the ladies when you, yourself are a lady!" Tamaki wailed as he upped his dramatics. "No one in the entire school knows except for those of us here!"

"Yeah," Hikaru added, "She opted out of taking gym classes."

"And the attendance numbers are all mixed together, so no one can tell," Kaoru added as Tamaki shot off to grab a large chest labeled "King's private property" before bringing it back to the center of the room. All three girls raised a single eyebrow at him as he started to did through the ornate box.

"I've had enough Haruhi! Now you listen to Daddy!" he said as he pulled out a huge portrait from the little box as if he was Mary Poppins, before shoving it in her face. In the frame was an enlarged image of Haruhi's old ID photo. "Daddy wants you to go back to looking the way you used to!" he wailed as Haruhi angrily shouted at him to not enlarge her photos without her permission.

"The more I look at this picture, the more amazed I am," Hikaru started as he looked at the picture with the other male hosts, before turning to Haruhi. "How could this," he gestured to the portrait "become that?" he finished, gesturing at Haruhi.

"A week before school started, one of the boys in my neighborhood stuck gum in my hair. It's a real pain to get gum out of long hair, so I decided to cut it all off. I didn't care if I looked like a dude, you know?" Haruhi said as if it was the most logical and obvious response in the world.

"A girl should never refer to herself as a dude!" Tamaki screamed in her face as he clutched her shoulders. "Mama! Haruhi's using those dirty boy words again," he cried dramatically before sinking to the floor, face buried in his handkerchief.

"I'm sorry, but who's 'Mama'?" Hikaru asked.

Without missing a beat, Kyoya replied, "Based on club position, I'd assume it's me."

"You really should have seen it before Melody fixed it," Bea smiled at the memory of the day the girls had first met. "It literally looked like she had put a bowl over her head and used that as an off-center template."

"Oh yeah," Melody said with a smile, also reminiscing as she leaned her chair back to balance on two legs. "I'm actually really proud of that. There was _not_ much left to work with and... No offense Haruhi... but it looked _awful_."

"Funny how when someone normally says to not take offense to something they say, the comment is usually very offensive," Haruhi gave her friends the side eye before letting out a small giggle. "Oh god... Do you remember my dad's reaction?" At this, all three girls dissolved into a fit of laughter.

"That was the day we moved here," Melody explained to the other hosts. "We were getting our key for the apartment when we heard him scream. Oh lord, it sounded as if he had seen a ghost or someone was attacking them."

"We ran up the stairs and into their apartment to find him hanging off of Haruhi as if a Dementor had just stolen his soul," Bea giggled. "After hearing him talk nonstop about how cute 'his precious daughter' was as he gave us a ride from the airport, we were so confused when we saw her."

"It looked so bad that I couldn't stand it, so I asked her to let me fix it as Bea made dinner for all of us. It took a while, but I was able to manage the cute longish-pixie cut you all are enjoying now," Melody smiled. "It took forever to get Ranka to stop crying on the ground... Kind of just like our 'illustrious king' is doing now," she pointed at the club president with a smirk.

"Look, I don't see what you're crying about," Haruhi scolded him. "Working as a host, I can pay back my debt. It'll never happen if I'm just an errand boy," she reasoned.

"I hate to change the subject, but do you have any formal dancing experience?" Hikaru questioned. "You'll need it at the party."

"Uh...no? But the party doesn't have anything to do with my quota right? I'm not really interested in going to events, so can I please be excused?"

"Definitely not," Tamaki answered, instantly recovering to his role as the Host Club's King from the weeping fool he had been a few moments earlier.

"You're going!" Melody and Beatrice cut her off. Both girls were as excited as the guests for the party. Melody loved music and dancing so much that she had almost made it her career before she discovered her talent of storytelling and Beatrice was not very different.

"A refined gentleman must know how to dance!" Tamaki explained as he slithered around the American girls, up next to Haruhi. "If you want to live the life of a host that badly, you're going to have to show us how far you're willing to go Haruhi. I order you to master dancing the waltz in one week! And you will demonstrate it for us at the party," he said as he spun around once on the balls of his feet. "Or I'll tell the entire school that you're a girl and knock you back down to errand boy."

_Well...shit._

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> By the way, did anyone else notice that the hosts refer to Kanako by her name and by Princess Kazuka? I re-watched it several times to be sure... I just assumed it was a way to combine her first and last name into a nickname and left it.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed. Please leave us a review to let us know what you think!


	8. The Job of a High School Host: Part 2

After the club hours the following day, Haruhi was receiving dance lessons from Kanako Kazusazaki.

"Quick quick slow. Quick quick slow. Good work Haruhi," Kanako complimented Haruhi as they danced together. "Now on the slow, you should bring your feet together," she patiently instructed despite the fact that Mori and Honey were spinning in circles around their lesson. "Remember, the gentleman always leads. And make sure to look at the lady you're dancing with."

"Got it," Haruhi said with a confident tone, despite the confusion swirling through her head. "Eh—uh—Wah!" Haruhi exclaimed as she lost her balance, knocking both her and Kanako to the floor. Blushing as she realized that she was accidentally straddling her partner, Haruhi vehemently apologized, "I'm so sorry Ms. Kazusazaki!"

"It's okay, Haruhi," Kanako smiled as she wrapped her arms around Haruhi's neck and pulled her down slightly, much to Haruhi's surprise as she let out a light gasp.

Trying to shake off the awkwardness, Haruhi scrambled to her feet, before extending a hand to Kanako. "Uh, can I help you up?"

Meanwhile, the twins moved over to Tamaki who was sulking by the window, intentionally allowing the sun's rays to cast a melancholy shadow on his face.. "Why so gloomy boss?" they chorused their question.

"I bet it's because _he_ wanted to be the one Haruhi practices with," Hikaru said to his brother.

"I think you may be right," Kaoru agreed. "But he's way too tall to stand in as a woman."

"Thank you so much for allowing me to practice with you," Haruhi thanked Kanako as she guided her to a table to serve her tea after their dance lesson. "I really appreciate it."

"Oh, no problem," Kanako replied with a smile as she used her handkerchief to dab at her forehead. "I heard that you're not seeing any customers today so you can practice dancing. I'm glad I got to spend this time alone with you," she continued as she rested her chin on her folded hands. Haruhi—still not used to girls flirting with her—didn't know how to respond and chose to remain silent as Kyoya walked up next to her. "Oh! This is a new tea set, isn't it?" Kanako smiled happily as she glanced down at her cup, before bringing it closer to her face to examine it. "It's Genori," she said happily, without a trace of doubt.

"Genori?" Haruhi asked, confused.

"You have a keen eye mademoiselle," Kyoya complimented Kanako. "In fact, we just received them yesterday. We decided that it was about time for the club to upgrade its tea sets."

"I see," Kanako smiled as she admired the cup. "What a pretty color... Lovely," she smiled, subconsciously cradling the cup tighter as if it was cherished. Tamaki glanced up with a look mixed with surprise and realization.

"Are you kidding me?" Melody grumbled to Bea as she passed by the piano. " _You_ were the one who suggested that the tea sets were out of date and _I_ was the one who hunted down Suzushima to order some new sets. And now he takes all of the credit?"

"Leave it, Melody," Bea placed a calming hand on her friend's shoulder. "You can gripe at him later, but for now, how about you take a break? They aren't dancing anymore and you don't want to strain your hands." Smiling at her friend's thoughtfulness, Melody nodded and accepted the tea cup she was offered as she moved to read a book in the window nook. Kyoya noticed her wave and saw her motion that she was going to rest for a bit and nodded that it should be alright.

"You must really be into tableware, huh?" Haruhi observed Kanako with a smile. At this, Kanako stiffened and immediately put down her cup as a blush spread across her cheeks.

"Not really! I mean no! Of course I'm not!" she said in vehement denial. "Whatever would give you that idea?" she asked nervously.

 _She obviously knows a lot about it,_ Haruhi observed as Kanako giggled nervously. _Why would she lie?_

Haruhi's thought were distracted as the doors to the club room opened and a male voice called out, "Hello? I'm here with the rest of the new teacups you ordered!" Haruhi noticed that Kanako flinched slightly and inhaled sharply at the sound of the newcomer's voice.

"Ah, thank you very much," Kyoya moved over to greet the boy. "Every item that you've chosen for us has been extremely popular with the ladies. I'm quite impressed," he complimented.

"Well that's good to hear," the boy replied with a smile.

"So, do you sell tea sets?" Haruhi asked curiously as she moved over to join the two boys.

"No," the boy replied as Haruhi took the box he was carrying. "I'm just a regular student. Can't you tell by the uniform?"

After an almost indiscernible pause, Kanako started fake-laughing, "Oh Haruhi, you're so funny." At this, the three 'boys' turned to look at her. "I can't blame you for not knowing," she said as she turned in her chair to face them. "After all, he doesn't really _look_ like the heir to a first-class company."

"First-class company?" Haruhi asked as the air seemed to leave the newcomers lungs at the sight of Kanako.

"His family's business," Kyoya explained. "The Suzushima Trading Co. deals primarily in importing of tableware. They currently have the top market share in the country." Both he and Haruhi decided to pretend to not notice as Kanako and Suzushima stared into each other's eyes for a moment before Kanako broke the contact and looked down with a sad look on her face.

"Wow," Haruhi said amazed as she tried to bring attention off of the obviously forlorn Kanako.

"So, whenever something exceptional comes in, we've asked them to send it our way. He has a great eye for fine china... Don't you Suzushima?" Kyoya asked, bringing his classmate's attention back to them.

"You think? I've still got a lot to learn," he said modestly. "But thank you."

"Aren't you leaving next month to study abroad in England?" Kyoya asked. Haruhi noticed that Kanako seemed to only get more and more deflated as they talked becoming completely disheartened as Suzushima confirmed Kyoya's question.

"Yes, I am," Suzushima replied before turning to take his leave. "Well, I better go now," he said, opening and closing the door behind him, leaving Kanako staring into her tea cup.

"So, are you enjoying the host club?" Tamaki asked her gently as he leaned on the table. Kanako looked up in surprise.

"I get the feeling that you and that guy are kinda close," Haruhi observed as she joined them, causing Kanako to briefly freak out and spin around.

"Don't be ridiculous! We hardly know each other!" Kanako denied loudly in a nervous tone. "What makes you say _that_ , Haruhi?" Haruhi raised her eyebrow in confusion at the girl's reaction to her innocent observation as Kanako hurriedly gathered her things. "Now if you'll please excuse me," she finished nervously as she fled the club room. Both Haruhi and Tamaki watched her go, each with a different look on their face. Tamaki was obviously thinking about the situation as Haruhi wondered what she had said to make the girl leave like that. She didn't have long to wonder though before she heard Hunny's voice call out her nickname behind her. She barely had time to brace herself—and the box of breakable items she was still holding—before she felt Honey launch himself in a surprise-attack and cling onto her back.

"Haru-chan!" Hunny said happily as Haruhi panted, recovering. "Guess what? They do know each other! Suzushima is Kazuka-chan's fiance!"

"Kyoya," Tamaki called out to his best friend calmly. "How long have you known about this?"

"About the two of them being engaged?" Kyoya clarified. "Well, as you know, I conduct general searches on all of our customers," he continued as he pulled out the folder containing all of the information he had on the guests from under his arm. "The two of them were childhood friends. It seems that their engagement was arranged by their parents. I didn't think the information would benefit us, so I disregarded it." he finished as he turned to look at Tamaki with a blank expression.

"I see," Tamaki acknowledged, sweat-dropping and deflating slightly at his friend's response.

"Toru Suzushima," Kyoya read from the file where Kanako's and Toru's images were side-by-side with a bored tone. "Outstanding grades. Bare social status. He's ordinary-looking, but he's reliable. If I had to fault him for anything..."

"He doesn't have much presence," Hikaru filled in from behind Kyoya's left side.

"And he's faint-hearted," Kaoru finished from behind Kyoya's right.

"So, in other words... He's boring," Kyoya finished as he snapped the file shut in one hand.

 _I had no idea they were so merciless toward other guys,_ Haruhi sweat-dropped.

"Suzushima is a good boy, right?" Hunny observed from his new perch atop Mori's shoulders as he leaned on his cousin's head.

"Yeah," Mori replied, only slightly annoyed that his cousin's new position prevented him from being close to Bea.

"Alright everyone," Tamaki gathered everyone's attention to him at the rare serious tone in his voice. "We'll have to work on our strategy."

"Which one?" everyone questioned.

"Men," Tamaki looked up, his usual sparkle and flourish back. "It is our responsibility as members of the elite Ouran host club to make every girl happy!"

* * *

Hours later, found Ouran Academy wrapped in the blanket of night and abandoned except for two students in Music Room 3, still burning the midnight oil.

"Are you kidding Kyoya?! You don't really think that only six—seven if you include Haruhi—guys are enough to dance with the two or three hundred girls expected to attend the party, do you?" Melody argued with her kohai. "I know I haven't been here as long as you, but some things are just impossible! Besides, Mori even said he was only interested in dancing with Beatrice. I know we were able to get him to agree to dance with other ladies, but we only got him to agree on the condition that half of his time be spent with his girlfriend!"

All of the other members of the Ouran host club had gone home hours ago, leaving the party planning to Kyoya and Melody. The only problem was that everyone had very different opinions on how the party should be held and had left Melody and Kyoya in charge of making all of their ideas become reality. Hunny wanted fancy cakes from France for the party, so they had requested and reserved the time of a high end patisserie to attend and bake. Mori wanted to take Beatrice as his date, and they had found a compromise to allow him to spend time with her as well as actually host. The twins had wanted to make the entire party a masquerade ball, but they had finally agreed to the arguments that since the party was so last minute to the guests, most young ladies wouldn't have a chance to get costumes. They had been appeased by being told they could design and create the dresses for Melody and Beatrice to wear at the party. Bea wanted to enjoy the evening, so they gave her the night off of catering duties and hired Chef Momoi to make hors d'oeuvres for the guests. All of that had already been taken care of and the only struggle left was the disagreement between Tamaki and Melody.

Melody had "made the mistake" of suggesting that the host club invite other male students to attend the party as well as the usual guests of the host club. The suggestion had barely left her mouth when Tamaki had flown off the handle, rejecting even the concept of the idea. Melody had tried to reason with him that more men would be required to attend to compensate for the vast difference in numbers of seven boys versus hundreds of girls, but he refused to listen. He kept arguing that since the host club was hosting the party, there was an expectation that only the most handsome men in the school would be attending. Melody had tried to argue that even if every host only danced once with every girl—as well as factoring in that no one could dance nonstop for hours on end—there would still be some young ladies at the end of the evening who would never get a chance to dance with a host. She had argued that if it was a party, it should be enjoyable for everyone, but Tamaki would hear none of the idea that they open the party for the entire high school.

"You know that I actually agree with you, Melody," Kyoya sighed as he leaned back in his chair, absentmindedly running a hand through his hair before taking off his glasses to rub his his nose trying to get rid of the headache caused by his strained eyes. "But Tamaki would never go for it. You're a smart girl, you know that once he has an idea in his head, there's no stopping him!"

"That's true," Melody consented as she held out her hand for Kyoya to hand her his glasses for her to absentmindedly clean as they both considered what to do. Over the past two (almost three) weeks spent staying late in the club room discussing the deep intricacies of the club's budget, Kyoya and Melody had developed a sort of understanding for each other. Neither would admit it—or ever show it in front of others—but Tamaki's plan to force them to work together was actually beginning to work and they had reached a sort of agreed middle ground that they could work together on. That was, they both blamed Tamaki if something wasn't working in their favor. That trick worked almost every time.

In all seriousness though, Melody and Kyoya were actually surprised at how well they worked together. Kyoya had first-hand knowledge about running businesses and Melody had multiple years of experience making money multiply in her bank accounts from buying and selling stocks, as well as inarguable customer service/hosting skills from sweet talking publishers and advertisers at writing and publishing events. Since she was self-published, she had to go out to multiple events a month to self-promote her books to get advertising. Kyoya was aiming to become heir of the Ootori zabaitsu and Melody had started as a fanfiction author and turned into a successful novelist. That stray thought reminded Melody of the deadline coming up for the next section of her book, and she suppressed a groan. Quickly making a mental note to alert the school that she would need to take some time off soon to tackle that, but first, they needed to get through the party. As she absentmindedly cleaned Kyoya's glasses with her handkerchief, her mind ran through possibilities of ways to make everyone happy at the party.

"Oh!" She exclaimed, leaning forward and causing the front two legs of her chair to slam back down on the floor. _When did I lean the chair back?... No! Focus!_ "How about we make it a father-daughter dance? We invite the fathers of the ladies to attend as their escorts?"

"That might be a good idea," Kyoya considered, "One Tamaki might even agree to, but most of our guests' parents are business people whose schedules are booked weeks—if not months—in advance. It'd be too last minute of a notice for this party. I suspect at least half of the ladies would show up without their fathers and would feel jealous of or even look down upon the girls whose fathers would be able to attend after the last minute invitation."

"Yeah, that's a good point," Melody conceded as she handed Kyoya back his glasses so that she could pull up a file on her computer to jot the idea down on. "We'll put that idea down for later then. I don't want to completely reject it for the future, because think of how many business and political connections we could make..." Kyoya nodded in agreement.

The other thing that Kyoya and Melody shared was a mutual interest in ulterior motives and furthering their positions. The adults in the real world may view them both as "children" and would severely underestimate them, but they both had more cards in their hands than others assumed. Not to mention, they were always looking for even more cards while remembering that they wouldn't be young forever and would one day have those adults who looked down on them now as their subordinates.

"Well, what do _you_ suggest we do?" Melody asked as she finished typing. "We can't just have the hosts as the only men at the party."

"I don't know Melody," Kyoya sighed, "But we need to come up with _something_ , especially if Tamaki wants to go through with this harebrained scheme of his."

"Ugh!" Melody lamented as she moved to bury her face in her arms. "Why does he have to be so _difficult_?! The boy is nuttier than squirrel turds! It's not like we can hire anyone, and apparently inviting other students is out of the question too..."

"Wait! Repeat what you just said," Kyoya stopped her, sitting up.

"Inviting students is out of the question?" Melody asked confused as she peeked up from her arms to look at him confused. It was obvious Kyoya had an idea, but what?

"No, before that," Kyoya clarified. "Why _can't_ we hire someone?"

"Okay," Melody said exasperated, going back down. "It's obviously _way_ past your bedtime if you think _that's_ a good idea."

"No, really. Think about it," Kyoya continued, already typing on his computer.

"I _am_ thinking about it Kyoya!" Melody said, confused and annoyed as she sat up. "Who would we 'hire' to host a bunch of ladies at a high school party? Not to mention, anyone outside of this school would consider this a ball, not just a mere party. No matter how you look at it, it doesn't make sense and/or isn't plausible!"

"Oh, but it is," Kyoya replied as a smile appeared on his face as he looked at something on his computer screen.

"What?" Melody got up and hurried around behind him to see what would have the Shadow King smiling. What she saw really shouldn't have surprised her as much as it did. "You want to hire _professional hosts_ to attend the party for the high school host club?!"

"Why not?" Kyoya glanced over his shoulder at her as she leaned on the back of his chair. He was slowly, but surely growing more accustomed to her lack of personal boundaries. "It's not like the idea of hosting was discovered by Tamaki. And this way he can't complain that they aren't handsome enough or don't have enough training in 'how to treat a lady'."

"While all of that is true, don't you think it'd cause competition to our sales? I mean... What if the ladies decide that they like these hosts more and stop coming to the club?" Melody didn't want to discredit or reject Kyoya's idea, but there really were too many uncertain variables. "And if you're planning on saying that the ladies would keep coming because you guys are a bigger catch, don't bother. It's true that some of our guests are just trying to catch your guys' eyes in the hope of snagging a rich husband, but not all of them are. Besides, we don't have time to run a background check on the number of unknown people we'd have to hire. Not even you could do it, sweetie. We should really try to stick with people we already know. We don't want to risk anything that could harm us, our guests, or the school's reputation," she advised as she rubbed his shoulder comfortingly before moving back to sit at her chair.

Kyoya hated to admit it, but she was right. Sighing and nodding in defeat, he leaned back in his chair for a moment before something she said recurred in his mind. "Wait, what did you just call me?"

"What?" Melody asked confused. "Did I say something weird?" She wracked her mind and re-ran through what she could remember of her mini-speech, but couldn't remember anything that would make him react.

"Did you call me 'Sweetie'?" Kyoya repeated, a small smirk tugging at his lips.

"Did I?" Melody asked surprised. "Sorry! Must've slipped out. Back in Texas—where I grew up, remember—everybody calls everybody 'sweetie,' 'honey,' sweetheart,' 'sugar,' and a bunch of other things like that. Must've slipped out of habit. Really sorry! I know you guys are kinda anti-PDA here in Japan. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable or anything," Melody apologized. She hadn't realized that she had let her guard down that much.

"You didn't," Kyoya said before he realized what he was saying. Eyes widening slightly, he coughed and pushed up his glasses in an attempt to mask his embarrassment. "W-what I meant to say was t-that... uh..."

Melody raised her eyebrow as she bit her lip in amusement. _Was the great and powerful Shadow King really flustered?_

Clearing his throat, Kyoya tried again. "What I was trying to say was that I don't mind if you let your guard down with me a bit. I promise I won't hold anything against you as long as you don't hold anything against me. Lord knows that my guard is down around you more than it should be."

Melody couldn't discredit what he said. In the two and a half weeks that they'd spent working together after the rest of their club-mates went home, they'd become a lot more relaxed around each other and had formed a sort of unspoken and unacknowledged trust. To be honest, despite the shady evil overlord character mask he put on in front of others, Melody was actually really enjoying getting to see glimpses of the real man behind the mask. But Melody wouldn't be Melody if she didn't tease him a little.

"Oh, you mean like that time where you tried to make popcorn and almost burned the school down? You mean you _don't_ want me to tell _everyone_ that story?" she asked in mock-shock before laughing at the expression of horror on his face and the memory.

* * *

_FLASHBACK_

_A couple of days earlier when they had been figuring out how much money they could afford to spend on the party, it had gotten late and Kyoya offered to make them a snack. Melody hadn't thought anything of it and had nodded her consent as she focused on the computer, willing the numbers on the screen to bend to her will. However, she was quickly pulled out of focus when she detected the smell of smoke filling the air. She had rushed to the en-suite kitchen to find Kyoya had placed the bag of popcorn on a skillet in the middle of the stove. The bag had skipped popping and gone straight to burning, filling the room with smoke while sending the popping kernels flying in every direction. She had immediately rushed over to take the pan off of the heat, but before she could grab a damp towel to throw over the bag to stop the burning, she felt a cold, damp feeling as white filled her vision. She tried to reach out to Kyoya to get him to stop spraying the fire extinguisher, but it had made the floor slippery and she lost her balance, falling into him. Her momentum had knocked the both of them to the floor. She landed on top of his chest as he fell backwards. Quickly trying to extricate herself, they wound up getting more tangled in each other as they got covered in more foam from the floor. By the time Kyoya grabbed her arms to steady them, they were a mess._

_"What the hell?" she asked laughing at their appearance. His hair was ruffled and his glasses were slightly askew as his pant-legs showed wet spots and his shirt was equally worse for wear. Fortunately, she found that her uniform was mostly untouched because her hair, arms, and face had taken most of the blow. As hilarity took over, causing her to burst out into laughter, she asked, "Don't you know how to make popcorn?"_

_Blushing slightly, Kyoya had immediately moved to de-tangle them from each other before getting up and helping her to her feet. "Actually, the chef or my sister usually makes it for me if I stay up too late studying," he told her, embarrassed._

_"Okay, well lesson one smart guy: read the instructions. Bagged popcorn goes in the microwave and loose popcorn goes in a covered pot on the stove," she instructed between giggles as she used a clean towel to clean her face and arms before pulling her hair into a pony tail. "Now how about you go get changed into a less destroyed uniform as I clean this up before my best friend kills us. Don't worry, it shouldn't take too long, you got most of the fire extinguisher stuff on you. Get changed and back to that budget and I'll act as your staff for tonight," she winked, shooing him from the kitchen._

_It really hadn't taken long to clean up the mess and she had joined him 30 minutes later with their snack. They had agreed that Bea would never know of the damaging blow her kitchen had taken. And Kyoya agreed to never try to cook without supervision again. It was their secret._

* * *

"Wait! That's it!" Melody was excited as she realized a solution to their problem.

"You want me to burn down a kitchen?" Kyoya asked with a raised eyebrow.

"No, not that," Melody waved her hand in a quick dismissive motion. "The staff! We could just have them dress up in slightly nicer suits than what they were going to wear and remind the ladies that they are there to serve them! If a girl wants to dance and the hosts are all occupied, she could ask one of the staff members to be her partner!"

"Not a bad idea," Kyoya acquiesced. "It wouldn't cost us any more money and it would be up to the ladies whether or not they asked them to dance. Tamaki can't complain about them being there, because he already approved of the staff."

"Exactly!" Melody was excited that they finally found a solution and could go home. "Plus, if the ladies are too...uptight...they don't _have_ to dance with the staff, but the option remains open if they change their minds."

"Sounds like a plan," Kyoya agreed as he powered off his laptop and packed away his things. "I'll let the staff know in the morning."

Melody followed his example and began to gather her things. As her laptop powered down, she caught a glimpse of the time on the display. "Oh shit!" she exclaimed, "Is it already this late?"

Kyoya glanced down at his watch and agreed that it was far too late for a young lady to walk herself home alone. Especially when you considered the type of neighborhood she lived in. "Would you like a ride?" he offered.

Melody bit her lip as she considered her options, but even she couldn't deny that it wouldn't be rational to walk home alone at this hour. But, still... "I wouldn't want to impose," she bit her lip uncertain.

"Please, I insist," Kyoya said as he gestured for him to go out the door ahead of him.

"Well, if it's not too far out of your way, I'd greatly appreciate it," she finally accepted.

"Not at all," Kyoya replied as he texted his his bodyguard. By the time they reached the front of the school, the car and all 3 of Kyoya's personal bodyguards were waiting for them. Kyoya helped her into the vehicle before following her. The 20 minute ride was full of amicable chatter. Melody learned a lot about Kyoya's bodyguards. Tachibana is 39 years old and a serious-albeit-neurotic family man that had a wife and daughter. Kyoya's second guard, Aijima, is 45 years old and is a calm man and a good cook, married to his expectant wife. The third guard, Hotta, is 35 years old and has no children.

"I really do appreciate the ride, Kyoya," Melody thanked him one last time as the car parked out front of her apartment.

"It was really not too far out of my way," Kyoya smiled. "It was actually sort of on my way."

"Well thanks again," she smiled as Hotta opened the door. "I'll see you tomorrow at school," she said as she took the hand that Hotta offered. "Thank you," she smiled to him as he helped her out of the car. Hotta, who was acting as the driver this evening, watched as she walked up the stairs and let herself into her apartment with a wave behind her before getting back into the car and driving off towards the Ootori estate.

"If you don't mind me saying sir, she's not really like the other girls at your school. She's different," Tachibana volunteered.

"That she is," Kyoya agreed with a small nod. He spent the rest of the ride carefully pulling his mask back into place before they reached his home.

* * *

After waving to Hotta again, Melody walked into her apartment to find a scene that was beginning to become more familiar than not. Hunny was happily gobbling down his strawberry shortcake as he allowed Bea to happily tie ribbons and bows in his hair. The lack of a giant confused her momentarily until she heard the familiar clatter of dishes being cleaned in the kitchen. Yelling out, so he could hear her over the sound of the water, she greeted everyone as she moved to drop her things off in her office. "Hi guys!" she smiled at the two sitting at the kotatsu, "Hey Takashi!" she called in terms of greeting towards the kitchen. "How was your guys' evening after you abandoned Kyoya and I back at school?" she asked in mock annoyance, her smile revealing her jest.

"It was good!" Bea smiled happily as Takashi joined them in the main room. "There are some leftovers for you in the fridge. I can heat them up for you, if you want—" she moved to get up, but Melody held up a hand to stop her.

"I got it! Thanks!" she smiled as she moved towards the kitchen. "So does anyone want to tell me why Mitsukuni has bows in his hair?" she called out to her friends as she got out the Tupperware of rice and stir fry from the fridge. Deciding to just eat it cold, she rejoined her friends with the container of food and a smirk playing on her lips.

"I wanted to... try out hairstyles for... the next club meeting?" Bea answered before receiving an accusing raised eyebrow from Melody. "Or the future?" Her answer was sounding more like a question the longer she went on.

Snorting in amusement, Melody turned her questioning gaze towards her friend's boyfriend, her mouth too full to re-articulate her question.

"She wanted to and Mitsukuni said she could," Mori answered as he pulled Bea into his lap.

 _If you had asked me before they started going out, I never-ever would have guessed Takashi would be the touchy-feely, affectionate type_ , Melody mused as she smiled at her friend's pouting face due to the fact that Mori was sitting just far enough away from Hunny that she couldn't keep playing with his hair from her new position. _But I guess it_ does _make sense... What, with him not being as much of a talker, he has to show his feelings somehow_.

Between mouthfuls of food—and sometimes even in the middle of mouthfuls, much to Bea's chagrin—Melody filled her friends in on everything she and Kyoya had decided on after they had left. She explained the different options they had considered and how this was the only one that they could possibly make work with such short notice. If she had expected some huge rejection from these friends, she really couldn't claim to know them well.

Bea accepted the idea relatively quickly after hearing the absurdity of some of the options they had gone through earlier in the evening and that Melody had even suggested inviting the fathers for the dance. To be honest, she actually really liked this plan. Mori and Honey weren't the biggest fans of the idea at first, but they knew their friends well enough to know that they had exhausted all other options before reaching this conclusion. They agreed it was actually not that bad of an idea and agreed to help get Tamaki to agree to it before the party. They kept brainstorming ways to get him to agree until Mori and Hunny's driver knocked at the door to let the group know it was time for the guys to leave if they wanted to make it home in time for their 11 P.M. curfew.

"Well, we'll see you guys tomorrow!" Melody said her goodbyes as the guys gathered their belongings and she moved towards her office to try to get some work done before bed.

"I'll see you down in the car," Honey smiled to his cousin as his sugar rush sent him bouncing down the stairs like a bunny rabbit, bows flying around in his hair as he went. Bea—having walked them to the door—giggled at the sight before she turned her eyes to look up at her boyfriend.

"Goodnight," she whispered with a content smile gracing her lips. Mori looked at her for a moment before cupping her cheek in one of his large hands and bending over to brush his lips against hers in a brief kiss...

Their first kiss.

Enjoying the surprise in her eyes and the way she tried to hide her face as a large smile broke across her face while a blush colored her cheeks, he gave her a gentle smile as he tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "Goodnight," he whispered back to her.

"Goodnight," she repeated, embarrassed but very happy as her cheeks were stained red.

Unable to resist the feeling of wanting to hold her in his arms, Mori pulled her into a hug and leaned over to kiss the temple of his petite girlfriend. "I'll see you tomorrow," he whispered into her purple hair before forcing himself to let her go so he could walk down the stairs to join his cousin in the car.

Still blushing, but with a happy smile on her face, Bea stayed at the door and waved goodbye as he climbed into the car. Watching the car for as long as she could as it drove off into the night, she went back inside after the luxury car turned a corner and disappeared from sight. She hummed softly and happily to herself as she went back inside and started her nightly routine.

Bea made sure to lock the door and windows before she went to the bathroom to get ready for bed. Once she had finished changing, washing her face, and brushing her teeth, she turned the shower on high to heat it up as she walked into the home office to grab the back of her best friend's shirt. Ignoring Melody's unhappily protests, Bea happily dragged her away from her work to shove her in the bathroom to shower and get ready for bed before going into her own room and crawling into bed—humming the entire time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please, please, please let me know what you think in a review! We can't tell you how surprised and happy we are by the number of people who have started following and favoriting this story (especially considering it only came to be by us gushing over how we were in love with two of OHSHC's hosts before deciding to rush home to write a story where we actually get to meet them and fulfill our fantasies), but please let us know what you think! Give us feedback! I thrive off of constructive criticism! Give us ideas and prompts! We aren't saying we'll officially include them, but we might!
> 
> I'm really having fun playing with the differences in the cultures between America (specifically Texas and our Southern slang) and what I've seen/read about Japanese modern culture. Keep an eye out, because I'm going start dropping more hints for the future and about the past now that we've finally got this story going. Please let us know what you think!
> 
> Also, Emily won't stop gushing about getting to go home early for Thanksgiving break. Specifically about how she'll get to see her boyfriend... Wonder what Mori would think...


	9. The Job of a High School Host: Part 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hello! Read on!

The evening of end of the week found the host club and their customers gathered in Ouran Academy's largest hall. The cherry blossoms were in full bloom, the night sky was clear and the stars were sparkling, and everyone was dressed in formal attire and were ready to enjoy the host club's party. The room was mostly dark with only accent lights to allow only enough lighting that nobody would hurt themselves. All of the ladies gathered in the hall and were chatting idly among themselves when all of the lights cut off, clothing the room in darkness.

"It is so good to see you here tonight, my little lambs," Tamaki paused as he cued the spotlight aimed where he was standing at the center of the balcony over the double set of stairs leading down into the ballroom, the rest of the hosts lined up on the stairs below him. "The host club would like to bid you... Welcome!" As he finished with a bow, all the chandeliers flashed on and the orchestra started to play, cuing the start of the festivities. All of the ladies smiled and started to applaud at the Host club's grand entrance.

"As always ladies, the host club members and the staff are here for your entertainment," Kyoya said with a gentlemanly flourish. "So we invite you to dance to your heart's content... Based on her dancing skills, one special lady will be chosen as tonight's queen. The queen's reward will be a passionate kiss on the cheek from our king."

"Good luck to you, my darlings," Tamaki smiled with a wink, making all of the girls squeal in delight. One girl even fainted in her throes of happiness. As Haruhi's eyebrow twitched, the twins came up behind her.

"Haruhi," they reprimanded, "show some enthusiasm!"

"Well, excuse me you guys! Sorry," she apologized with an annoyed tone. "I'm not used to this sort of thing," she explained. "I've only ever gone to the festivals held in my neighborhood park."

"I don't know if you could really consider that a party, or not," Kyoya observed. "Well, since you're already here, you might as well get yourself something to eat," he offered absentmindedly as he wrote in his notebook that he had conjured up from who-knows-where (another dimension if you asked Melody). "We've got quite a spread." At Kyoya's offer, Haruhi perked up.

"A spread?" Haruhi thought for a moment. "With... fancy tuna?"

At these words, all of the hosts freaked out. Kyoya's pen shattered in his hand, the twins clung to each other, Mori and Hunny looked like they had been struck by lightning, and Tamaki single-handedly flipped over the railing above them to land next to the group. By the time he landed, the twins were both hugging a blushing Haruhi as Mori and Hunny looked on (mostly to ensure Haruhi wasn't being suffocated), and Kyoya's binder had magically disappeared to be replaced by his phone in his hand. After he landed, he turned to his best friend and ordered that he "get some fancy tuna here right now!"

"Add some deluxe sushi," Kyoya said into his phone after dialing. _These filthy rich jerks_ , Haruhi thought as she blushed profusely in Hikaru and Kaoru's arms.

"You really always overcome everyone's expectations," Melody said gracefully, appearing beside her friend, throwing the twins off of her. "You always know the best ways to get everyone to completely overreact about the smallest of things. Oh! And before I forget... Your brown suit looks nice Haruhi. Bea did a really nice job," she winked conspiratorially. Haruhi had begged her father to loan her one of his older suits to wear to tonight's party and Bea had gained permission from the Fujioka patriarch to fix and tailor it to Haruhi's measurements.

"It really wasn't much," Bea blushed from besides Mori. "I really think the twins are the ones who outdid themselves." Melody was sporting a lovely floor length emerald green evening gown. The strapless bodice sparkled with the hand embroidered sequin and bead work that had obviously taken the twins hours to complete. Bea's pink dress was made in a similar style to her best friend's. The entire bodice was embroidered with lovely sequins and sparkles, and the pink skirts also kissed the floor in certain places. The main difference was that while Melody's fitted bodice dipped into a "V" at her waist and seamlessly flowed into her skirts, Bea's dress was adorned with a bow at her stomach from which her layered skirts started. Both girls had their hair done up in elegant french twists.

"Are those new necklaces?" Kyoya noticed their matching jewelry. Both girls hands flew to their necks in confusion, before a shared smile graced their faces. The necklaces were fairly simple, and modest, but definitely didn't lack sparkle. The identical necklaces were simple and consisted of a single diamond in a bezel setting hanging from a silver chain that was just long enough to sit at the clavicle and not choke the girl.

"Actually," Melody blushed. "These were my mother's. The diamonds have been passed down to the eldest daughter in my family for generations. She gave them to me as a pair of diamond earrings. I had to sell off the smaller stones to publish my first book, but I had the one carat stones reset in white gold. I gave one to Bea on the day we were announced emancipated. I wanted her to know that she's my sister and that we would always find a way to take care of each other."

"We don't wear them often because they're so expensive, but we thought we'd make an exception for tonight," Bea smiled happily.

"Anyway," Melody smiled, "We have a party to host and a long list of ladies who'd love your attention, so let's get this party started!"

"Of course," Tamaki smiled, turning to the ladies. "Now who'd like to be my partner for the first dance of the even—?" Before he could even finish, he was surrounded by so many ladies that the other hosts knew it would be a while before the mob dissipated enough to allow them to interact with their illustrious leader. The twins and Honey followed the mob towards the dance floor, grabbing the hands of nearby ladies as they went. Haruhi excused herself to go grab a quick bite before hitting up the dance floor.

"May I?" Mori asked, bowing towards Bea with his hand extended to ask for hers. Bea nodded as a light blush covered her cheeks and she allowed her boyfriend to escort her to the dance floor, leaving Melody and Kyoya alone.

Not wanting to give him the chance to ask her to dance when she knew he would out of courtesy, Melody made her escape. "Well I'm going to go check and make sure the orchestra has everything they need before I grab one of the employees to dance with. You should really get out there," she smiled at Kyoya before holding up the notebook he hadn't realized she had taken from him. "And I'm confiscating this for the evening. You need to dance with our guests," she held up her hand to halt his protest. "And before you say anything, I'm going to send it back to my place where you can pick it up _tomorrow_. You need to relax after the party. We can worry about all of the numbers _together_ in the morning. This is the only way I know you won't do it by yourself tonight. And don't worry," she teased with a wink as she turned to walk away, "I promise I won't read anything."

Kyoya shook his head to clear his mind as he watched her go. She really found a way to make sure she always had her way and he decided to not argue with her this time. He could really use some sleep later. But the one thing he _couldn't_ clear from his mind was the way she had wiped away a tear as she turned to leave, a quick and graceful movement he knew she hadn't wanted anyone to notice.

* * *

As the evening progressed, the night found the male hosts dancing with several of their clients. All of the gentlemen smiled and swept their partners off of their feet... Well, all of the gentlemen except for Haruhi, who leaned against a pillar with a smile on her face as she watched all of her friends enjoy themselves. As much as she had tried to stop them, Melody and Bea had insisted on working to ensure the party was a success since the male hosts would be tied up on the dance floor for the majority of the evening. Melody was constantly checking on the orchestra and staff while Bea made sure that none of the chefs needed any assistance. More often than not though, Mori wound up dragging Bea onto the dance floor every few songs (fulfilling his host club duties and dancing with other ladies while she was gone) and Melody danced just as much, if not more with the gentlemen around the room. Up until this point, Haruhi hadn't danced much and was just enjoying the party from afar. Unbeknownst to her, two of her guests were trying to work up the courage to ask her to dance, when Kanako Kasusazaki walked up, pulling Haruhi out of her thoughts.

"Hello Haruhi," she smiled. "I've been looking all over for you. Do you think maybe I could have the next dance?"

"Yeah," Haruhi smiled as she pushed herself away from the column and held out her hand for Kanako to take, "Of course you can." However, it wasn't meant to be because just as Haruhi led Kanako onto the dance floor, Tamaki gave the order to "commence with the operation." Before either Haruhi or Kanako knew what was happening, Hunny and Mori had rushed by, sweeping Haruhi off of her feet as they went, leaving a confused Kanako behind to dance with a smiling Tamaki.

Meanwhile, Haruhi, Mori, and Hunny walked (or in Hunny's case—bounced) into the club room to join all of the other remaining hosts. After being put down from being slung over Mori's shoulder, Haruhi turned to reprimand her friends for being so forceful, but was ignored and interrupted as Hikaru placed a clothing bag in her arms and told her to get changed before an excited Hunny pushed her behind the changing curtain.

Haruhi took a deep breath and got to work changing out of her suit and into her "disguise" as Kyoya mentioned that "a little accident toward the end of the night would be quite thrilling," to the rest of the boys. "And remember Haruhi," he called out, "We have 20 minutes remaining before the party reaches its climax. Suzushima is already waiting for you in the classroom across the hall."

"You have to ask him how he feels, okay?" Hunny continued as Hikaru and Kaoru applied quick-remove makeup to Haruhi's face while muttering how unsettling it was to see Haruhi like this. Just as they finished, Melody and Beatrice burst into the room.

"Here you guys are!" Beatrice exclaimed flustered as they rushed in.

"What are you doing?" Melody reprimanded as she strut over to the boys, her green dress flowing around her legs as a few more strands escaped her elegant bun to frame her face. "The guests are all waiting for you guys! You can't all just disappear from your party at the same time! What were you thinking?"

"I mean, really! Tamaki has already escorted Kanako out of the ballro—" Bea started, but paused as Haruhi stood and turned around. "Haruhi?"

"So? What do you think?" The twins chorused, proud of their work.

"Wow! You look so cute!" Hunny complimented Haruhi as a small blush crossed Mori's face, giving a slight nod in agreement.

"My face feels heavy and it's hard to walking these shoes!" Haruhi grumbled as she awkwardly marched by her friends.

"Welcome to the pains of being a woman!" Melody declared as she rushed the others to head back to the ballroom.

"I can kind of see why Ranka was so depressed when she cut her hair," Bea muttered to her friend as they escorted—read "corralled"—the other hosts back to the ballroom.

"No kidding," Melody smiled to her friend. "You two did a great job," she complimented the twins as they called back to Haruhi wishing her luck. Haruhi just waved over her shoulder to acknowledge them before taking a deep breath before entering the classroom to greet Toru.

* * *

Toru Suzushima was looking out the window at the blooming cherry blossoms when he heard the door open behind him. Turning around, he was surprised to see the complete opposite of what he had imagined his secret admirer to look like. "You're the one who wrote this letter?" he asked surprised. "You're totally different from what I expected."

And it was true. Instead of a chipper, hyper, head-cheerleader-type young lady with curly blonde hair pulled into pigtails wearing a girly dress with more ruffles than Kanako had in her entire wardrobe, this young lady was much more approachable. Instead of the excitable, over-make-uped blonde in his mind, this young lady had straight long brown hair and almost no makeup on. Instead of the super-frilly dress he had imagined she would prefer, this young lady wore a simple pink knee-length dress with a flower arrangement on her shoulder and opposite hip. He found himself relaxing as he looked into her deep chocolate brown eyes. She really _was_ nothing like her letter conveyed her to be.

"Letter?" she questioned. Instead of reading it out loud, he handed it to her.

"I'm in love-love!  
From the first time I saw you, I've been head-over-heels in love! [giggle]"

Haruhi paused to baffle at the fact that the word "giggle" had actually been written.

"My heart is stuck in a never-ending typhoon!  
All these feelings of love keep whipping around in my heart like the breaking waves!  
When the typhoon's rising waters come, I want to rendezvous with you on Noah's Ark!  
I do! I do!"

 _Who wrote such a stupid letter?_ Haruhi wondered as she sweat-dropped, remembering that the twins and Melody had been eagerly working together on something a few days earlier.

"Excuse me, have we met somewhere before?" Suzushima asked, causing Haruhi to panic.

"Wahhh—Uh, no! This is the first time I've ever talked to you!" Haruhi explained with a nervous giggle.

"Uh—I'm sorry," Suzushima's tone made Haruhi look up. "I'm flattered by your letter, but I'm afraid I don't feel the same way. You see, another girl already has my heart."

"Oh, well I didn't know that you already had a girlfriend," Haruhi replied, straightening up.

"Unfortunately, she's not my girlfriend," Suzushima sighed. "In fact, I think she's completely over me. In all honesty, she'd be happier with someone more self-confident than me." Haruhi paused as she looked at the internal struggle playing on his face. "That's why I decided I need to change. I want to see the world and hopefully, become a better man," he explained with a wistful expression on his face. "I know it's selfish, but I wonder if she'll wait for me."

"Yeah," Haruhi replied with a thoughtful expression on her face. "You're right. That _is_ pretty selfish of you," she replied, sending an arrow through any self-confidence and pride he _did_ have. "But maybe she _would_ wait. You'll never know if you don't tell her how you feel. You _obviously_ have strong feelings for her, so why not go ahead and talk to her? I think once you decide to change, then you've already begun your transformation."

Suzushima was surprised to say the least. This girl had supposedly come to confess her feelings for him, but was now giving him heartfelt relationship advice. Without thinking, he lifted his hand toward her before glancing up to see Kanako standing in the doorway with a shocked expression on her face. As he exhaled a gasp in shock, a whisper of her name escaped his lips. As if the sound of her name wounded her, Kanako immediately recoiled, and ducked her head, allowing her hair to hide her face as her eyes welled up in tears.

"I'm so sorry," she apologized. "I didn't mean to interrupt you two, I just—" Kanako stopped when she could no longer hold back her tears. Not wanting her hurt to be mocked, she immediately turned and ran off down the hallway, leaving the door open behind her. Even though he was across the room, Suzushima was quick to react and chase after her, calling her name. He didn't even bother to apologize to the girl he was abandoning, since his sole focus was on the girl abandoning him and he'd be damned if he didn't chase after the girl he loved. Haruhi followed him out of the room before watching the two lovers run down the hallway.

"Looks like we just made matters worse," Haruhi said to Tamaki when she sensed him walk out from behind the door behind her.

"But he _did_ go running after her," Tamaki smiled causing Haruhi's eyes to widen in realization before she sent a sideways smirk to the man next to her. _It's our responsibility as members of the elite Ouran host club to make every girl happy._

"Now come on," Tamaki smiled, as he turned to walk in the opposite direction, towards the ball room. "The party's finale is almost upon us and it would be unfitting for a 'gentleman' to wear a dress."

As if his words had knocked her out of a relaxed trance, Haruhi hurried back to the club room to hurriedly scrub all traces of makeup off her face as she tugged back on her suit again. Rushing back to the ballroom, she made it just as four spotlights flashed on outside the ballroom to capture the moment a desperate (and slightly sweaty) Suzushima caught a surprised and teary Kanako's wrist.

 _What kind of goose-chase did she lead him on if he only_ just _caught her?_ Haruhi briefly wondered as Tamaki's voice sounded over the speaker system.

"Ladies and gentlemen," he began as the doors swung open and everyone trickled outside. "It is now time to begin the final dance of this evening's festivities. The last waltz of the night has been chosen by the host club for this couple," he smiled as he gracefully gestured to Kanako and Suzushima. Kanako was frozen in surprise when she felt Toru let go of her wrist. Backing up a few steps as she tore her eyes from the hosts to look at the man beside her, she was even more surprised when he bowed to her.

"Princess Kazuka," he said as he held out his hand. "May I have this dance?"

If she was surprised before, she was shocked now. _Wasn't he with another girl before? Doesn't he have feelings for her? Is he only chasing after me for familial obligations? Does he even_ want _to dance with me?_ All of these thoughts swirled through her head until she saw Toru—the boy she had loved since she was a child—look up and see the concern in her eyes. All it took was a warm, reassuring smile—as if she was the only woman he could see—and her doubts were banished as she smiled and took his hand. "Yes."

The hosts and their guests all watched with smiles on their faces as Toru Suzushima confidently led Kanako Kazusazaki in a waltz. Well, everyone except for two trouble-making twins who decided that the perfect waltz-watching snack would be bananas and that _now_ would be an excellent time to chow down. Kanako couldn't care less though as she smiled up at the man she loved from the circle of his arms. If she had thought that was the happiest moment of her life, she would have been immediately discredited after what he said to her next.

"I love you Kanako. I've always loved you! And... I want you to be my wife," he told her without a trace of doubt in his voice or in the eyes that looked lovingly into hers. She knew that the tears blurring her vision this time were physical evidence of her overwhelming happiness as she smiled in their dance.

"Tonight marks the end of my host hopping," she pledged to him.

"May this awkward couple be forever blessed!" Tamaki sighed happily as the twins came up behind him holding microphones in one hand and finished banana peels in the other.

"And now we'll announce the queen of the ball!" Hikaru proclaimed.

"Congratulations Ms. Kanako Kasusazaki!" Kaoru finished as the sound of applause filled the air, making Kanako blush.

"And for her reward, a kiss on the cheek from the king!" Hikaru continued, banana peel now 'magically' missing from his right hand.

"Are you ready?" Tamaki said in an almost seductive tone as Haruhi gave him the side eye.

"Haruhi Fujioka will stand in for Tamaki!" Kaoru (now also without his banana peel) announced to the shock of both Haruhi and Tamaki.

As both hosts freaked out, the twins explained, "Kyoya did say that a little accident towards the end of the night might make the evening more thrilling for everyone!"

Ignoring the panic from Haruhi and Tamaki, Suzushima placed a reassuring hand on his troubled fiancee's shoulder. "It's just on the cheek, right? You should accept it! It will commemorate your graduation from host hopping!"

"There's no way I can kiss her," Haruhi said, annoyed. However, her tune quickly changed when Kyoya mentioned reducing her debt by a third if she did it. "Well, it _is_ just a peck on the cheek," she quickly reconsidered as she moved to walk down the steps.

"Hey," Hunny realized as he popped up next to the twins who were currently holding up a suddenly weakened Tamaki. "You don't think this is Haru-chan's first kiss, do you?"

"What?!" a revived Tamaki exclaimed in shock as they watched Haruhi moved to kiss Kanako's cheek. "Wait Haruhi!" he exclaimed as he tried to rush forward and stop her. His equilibrium was severely hindered though when a banana peel appeared under his foot. Slipping, he accidentally pushed Haruhi into Kanako making their lips press together in a real kiss.

Hearts floated above the heads of all of the guests as they squealed in happiness as the two girls jumped apart. _I never would've thought that I'd end up giving my first kiss to another girl._ Haruhi mused. _But it_ was _such an amazing night, so I guess it's just as well!_

She spent a few minutes chatting and apologizing to Kanako when she noticed that the guests were all gathering their things and moving towards the waiting cars. She made a quick trip back to the club room to gather her things. When she got back, she noticed a few things:

First, Tamaki and the twins had already left.

Second, Hunny was eating cake by himself as Mori and Beatrice were in their own little world, talking outside.

And third, Kyoya was the only one really concerned about the party's cleanup and was instructing the staff. As much as she wanted to stay and help, Haruhi knew she had to get home to take care of her dad and shower before she spent the night at Melody's and Bea's. She made a beeline for Hunny, let him know she was leaving and rushed outside, just as Melody got back from seeing the last guest off safely.

After telling Haruhi she'd see her later, Melody took a minute to glance around the hall before her eyes narrowed on her target and she marched on a war path towards Kyoya.

"Hey, _Ootori_!" Melody called out to him as she marched over. "Do you want to tell me why it was a good idea to leave Beatrice and I to take care of the entire party when you all disappeared? I mean, I get the part about Tamaki's plan needing someone to do Haruhi's makeup and get her changed, but don't you think either Bea or I could've managed to make that happen instead of completely losing ALL of the hosts? And on top of that—" her rant came to a halt as she slipped on a stray banana peel and awkwardly twisted her ankle in her high-heels. Instinctively knowing that she was going down, she squeezed her eyes closed and braced herself to hit the cold tile, when she felt two strong, warm arms wrap around her waist.

If Kyoya hadn't been less than three feet away, she probably would have fallen and injured her ankle farther, but as it was the two hosts found themselves staring into each other's eyes as her arms had instinctively wrapped around his neck to brace herself. She opened her mouth to thank him when her injured ankle reared its ugly head and made her gasp in pain instead. Kyoya immediately crouched down and swept her up into his arms bridal style and carried her across the room to the others. Melody blushed in embarrassment at her predicament. She had been so focused on tearing Kyoya apart, that she hadn't been paying attention to where she was going. Somehow, she had managed to slip on a banana peel and injure her ankle in a way that required her to be caught and carried by the very person she had been planning on attacking. As someone who spent most of her life taking care of herself, she felt very flustered at the fact that she was now being taken care of.

Long before they reached Hunny's table, the lolita host noticed Melody grimacing as Kyoya carried her.

"Ano! What happened?!" he exclaimed as he rushed to get a chair ready. His exclamation brought Mori's and Bea's attention to them and they rushed inside to join them, just as Kyoya gently placed Melody down in the chair before moving to kneel before her.

"I just slipped," Melody blushed in embarrassment. "It's really no big deal, but I would've fallen if Kyoya hadn't—OW! Be a little gentle, would you?" she asked in pain as Kyoya lifted her foot to rest on his raised knee so he could examine it.

"She twisted her ankle," Kyoya supplied as her gently got to work unstrapping her shoe so he could examine her injury better. After successfully removing the strappy high-heel, he glanced up. "Mori-sempai, would you mind seeing if you could find a first aid kit?"

"I'm going to kill those damn twins!" Melody grumbled in annoyance as she gripped Bea's hand tightly to distract herself as Kyoya poked and prodded her ankle to see where it was most internally damaged. As a dancer when she was younger, she was more than familiar with injuries to her feet and legs, but even she had to admit that she was concerned about how fast her left ankle was turning blue and purple. Biting her lip against the pain, she was only able to whimper and nod to let him know whenever he hit a tender spot as she tried to keep her mind from going back to remembering how it felt to be held in his arms and how much she already missed the feeling.

 _No!_ she internally reprimanded herself. _Get a hold of yourself! People are only here to hurt you! Especially men. You can only trust Bea! She's the only one who will never hurt you. You have to get over whatever this feeling is. You can't fall for him... Especially him! He's the Shadow King, if_ that _doesn't scream untrustworthy, I don't know what does! But still..._

Bea saw the subtle thoughts flash through her friend's eyes and felt sympathy for her turmoil through her own worry. None of the hosts knew what Melody had gone through when she was younger. While her many trials had helped her grow and made her into a strong and independent young woman, they had also crippled her in ways unseen to most. After being betrayed and hurt so much in her life, Melody was very cautious to say the least. Over time, she had started to develop a deep distrust in others and had begun to block her heart off from everyone apart from her best friend. By now, she had built up a nearly impenetrable wall around her heart, guarding it with caution, distrust, and occasionally hostility. For someone who she knew believed that everyone was eventually going to hurt her, Bea knew that it must be incredibly difficult for Melody to let her guard down enough to even let Kyoya tend to her injury. _I wonder if he will he the one to finally breach the wall to her heart. Oh I hope that if he does, he doesn't hurt her. I don't think she can take any more pain and rejection. I'll have to keep an eye on them and intervene if necessary. I_ won't _let her be hurt anymore._

"How bad is it Kyoya-senpai?" she vocalized as Mori returned with the first aid kit.

"I don't think it's broken," Kyoya glanced at Bea over his shoulder as he accepted the first aid kit. "I'm pretty sure it's just a sprain. But at the very least, she should really try to not put any weight on it for at least a week and keep it wrapped to allow it to heal quicker. I'd recommend she skip school and stay home, but—"

"That's fine," Melody replied, much to the surprise of the men around her. "What?" she asked at the expression on their faces.

"We just thought you would've put up more of a fight about missing school," Mori replied.

"Oh, yeah... That's not really a problem," she replied. "I was already planning on taking some time off soon to get some work done for my next book. Maria, my editor, has been on my case ever since I was late for my last deadline due to the late hours with the club. I've had quite a bit of work pile up that I really need to take care of. I can work at my desk at home, right?"

"As long as you keep your ankle elevated and keep weight off of it, I don't see a problem with that," Kyoya replied as he finished wrapping her ankle. "Now about getting you home," he leaned back onto the heels of his feet. "I'd offer to escort you, but I still have business here that needs to be finished."

"I can carry her," Mori offered.

"That's right! We were going to drive the girls home," Hunny smiled as he subtly examined his kohai.

It didn't take a genius to notice that Melody and Beatrice had seemed a little cautious as Kyoya had revealed a bit of his softer side. They didn't know him like Hunny did, though. Their families had always been close business-wise and since Kyoya had trained in karate at the Haninozuka dojo from a young age, the three older boys in the host club had grown up relatively close before they entered middle school. Hunny knew that due to the strict way he was raised, Kyoya did not normally trust people enough to let down his guard around them. Actually, the original six members of the host club had been the only exception to the rule that Hunny knew of... until now. However, as soon as he mentioned that he and his cousin would escort the girls home, Hunny saw the signature glare of Kyoya's glasses and watched him abruptly pull his guard back up as if he hadn't intended to let it fall in the first place.

"I see," Kyoya replied as he pushed his glasses up higher on his nose as he stood up and brushed himself off. "Thank you Hunny-senpai. And I trust you can take care of her Beatrice?"

"Of course," Bea replied with a smile. "I'll make sure she doesn't overdo something and hurt herself before I drag her to the hospital in the morning."

"That would probably be a good idea," Kyoya smiled at the young girl. It was difficult to _not_ open up to the purple haired girl.

"I don't want to," Melody cut in, throwing a wrench in the conversation.

"What?" Bea was confused.

"The hospital," Melody replied, crossing her arms defiantly. "I'm not going."

"The hell you are!" Bea replied angrily, also crossing her arms with a no-nonsense look on her face. She knew her friend had trust issues and hated doctors, but this was non-negotiable.

"The hell I'm not!" Melody said with a pout.

Sensing an argument about to arise, Kyoya decided to cut in. "If you don't want to go to the hospital, I can arrange for one of my family's doctors to join me when I come over in the morning."

"Wait—what?" Bea was getting flustered. "You really don't have to go out of your way senpai, I just—"

"It's not out of my way," Kyoya replied. "If I remember correctly, Melody already invited me to work out the final numbers for this evening. That is, as long as it's not an inconvenience for you?"

"Uh—no... Actually, I was going to go out on a date with Takashi tomorrow, but—"

"Perfect!" Melody cut her friend off. "Then you can enjoy your date, we can get some work done, and no one has to worry about rearranging their schedules to make sure someone is around to babysit me and make sure I don't do anything reckless or stupid!" Melody smiled. "Now that all of that is settled, if only there was a way we could get home..." she hid her smirk as she tapped a finger to her chin in thought.

"I'll get the car Mel-chan!" Hunny exclaimed as flowers popped up around his head as he bounced out of the hall. Bea still felt conflicted, but looked up when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"It really isn't a problem, Beatrice," Kyoya told her softly in confidence, as Mori and Melody talked with each other. "I know you and Mori-senpai have been looking forward to your date. You should enjoy it."

Bea nodded her consent as he turned away to clear up a few last details with Melody. _It's you taking care of her that I'm worried about_ , she thought as she watched her friend's expression soften as she interacted with the man she was supposed to hate.

"I hope you have a good evening ladies," Kyoya smiled and bowed to them both before turning to walk back to where he had left the staff.

"Uh, Kyoya?" Melody called after him, making him pause and turn back around a few steps away. "You didn't give me a chance to thank you."

He paused and smirked, in true Shadow King fashion said, "You may want to hold off on thanking me until you receive the bill for my services." He smiled evilly turned back around, leaving to rejoin the staff he had left before. Melody's jaw dropped in shock, before dissolving into giggles, realizing that she really should have expected that.

"May I?" Mori asked his classmate, wanting to be sure she was alright before he picked her up.

Smiling at her classmate's thoughtfulness, Melody nodded. "Yes, thank you Takashi." He nodded as he bent down to pick her up as Kyoya had done earlier. Melody wrapped an arm around his neck to steady herself as he carried her out to the car. Melody had to make a conscious effort to push back the thought that it had felt better in Kyoya's arms. _Of course it did! This is Bea's boyfriend, not yours!... That doesn't mean that you want Kyoya to be your boyfriend either... wait... What?! Do I like Kyoya?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's the end of the episode, so that's the end of this chapter! Hope you enjoyed! I'm really on a writing kick, so watch out! I know that this and last chapter were both over 6,000 words, but (as Emily can testify) that kind of broke me and sent me into a psychotic and physical break... I don't know if I can keep that up, so let's just see where this goes.
> 
> I have to say that the editor's name was very intentionally chosen. One of my favorite authors one here has moved on to publish several books and is one of my very good friends. She's the one who inspired me to write Ouran fanfiction. Check out her works at mcangel1976 or on Amazon (Maria Vickers). She mentioned me in the acknowledgements of her most recent book and I wanted to return the favor a bit.
> 
> Also, why are you all so quiet? Please let us know what you think! Review! If you hate it, let us know! If you love it, let us know! If you think it's corny and stupid... We already know that, but please tell us where you think we can improve!
> 
> Love you all lots! Thanks for reading!

**Author's Note:**

> So, it's been a while, but I started re-reading Ouran High School Host Club and I wanted to revisit this story and continue it. The point of view might change a bit throughout the story, but it'll stay consistent by chapter, depending on what's going on.
> 
> Also, I know that Melody was originally a music producer, but I was blocked when trying to write for that, so I changed her to a successful novelist which is something I can actually write about (but have yet to experience).
> 
> Please let me know what you think!


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